Third Time's the Charm
by Cindy Snowflake
Summary: When a magical being dies he is separated from his magic, which may lead to developing an awareness of Spirit Energy. This didn't mean anything until Harry died and came back. Figures that this new world of Spiritual Awareness has a deadly tournament too.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I finally understand why crossover authors tend to have long lists of works in progress. It's simply too much fun sticking Harry into crazy situations.**

1.

"Err, excuse me."

"Eh?" came a grunt in reply. Harry winced as the tall man turned to face him with a glower, muscles rippling as he leaned back slightly on the bar stool. Honestly, why did they all have to be so… buff?

Nothing for it. Harry pushed aside his nerves and went straight to the point.

"I don't suppose you could explain to me why you're glowing?"

'Three, two, one,' Harry thought to himself tensely as he watched the man's face go through the tell tale series of emotions. Confusion, realization, irritation and fear, finished off with I'ma-gonna-beat-you-bloody.

The wizard showed himself out the door as fast as he could before the punch could land.

"Bloody hell," Harry muttered to himself. "That kind of personality better not be a result of their glowiness status. I rather like not being a complete and utter arsehole.; had enough of that when wearing that Merlin-be-damned locket."

He sighed and looked at the door behind him. At least this time it was looking like he wouldn't be pursued down the streets. Just once, he'd like to find someone who glowed and _didn't_ practice some ancient kick-arse martial art, or at least, didn't try to apply it to his face before giving him some answers. After the first two, he'd even done some research into personal wards to buffer against physical attacks. He found a few, but was rather unwilling to test them out.

"Hey, Kid."

Harry turned to see an Asian woman in a lawyer's outfit smoking a cigarette in a nearby alley.

"Who'd you see glowing?"

Harry blinked a few times, slightly taken aback, before answering. "You, for one."

The woman snorted. "Alright, I'll give you that. What color?"

Color? He removed his glasses to get a better look. "Purple," he replied, placing the lens back on his nose.

"Not bad. You're a rare one, Kid, and it seems like you stumbled into a whole new world without even noticing the gateway." She stamped out her cigarette light and withdrew a pencil and pad from her purse. "You won't get many answers here, I'm afraid. The best specialists are on the other side of the world. If you get the chance," she jotted something down quickly on the notepad, then tore off the top sheet and handed it to Harry. "Try her. Until then, you'd be best off keeping those sheets of glass over your eyes and minding your own business. A weakling like you makes easy chump bait."

As Harry was pondering how he should feel about being called a weakling, the woman walked with crisp clips in her high heels to the office building across the street, leaving behind a very confused wizard with the contact information of a single specialist of 'a whole new world.' First his childhood with muggles, then adolescence with the wizards, and now apparently he was to enjoy his early adulthood with martial artists who glow different colors. As a frequent traveler of so called worlds, he wondered if this one would refrain from desiring his death.

He doubted it.

* * *

><p>"Japan? Bloody hell, mate, you don't have to leave for the complete opposite side of the world for a vacation!"<p>

Harry ignored Ron's protests as he continued packing his things into his trunk. He had no desire to return to Grimmauld Place in the future, so he might as well take everything he planned on keeping.

"Harry," Hermione said. "This isn't just a trip for fun, is it? What's going on?"

Harry chuckled at her insight and then paused his movements, leaning against the bed as Ron and Hermione waited for him to talk.

"After I died," he began, "I started seeing some funny lights. For awhile, I dismissed them as just glare off my glasses – Merlin knows there were plenty of reporter cameras to blame, until one night, I took my glasses off and looked in the mirror. I was glowing green. Ever since, I've noticed everyone had some glow, but weak, almost unnoticeable unless I take my glasses off and look for it. Then one day, I was walking through muggle London and found someone who glowed just as brightly as I do in the mirror. For the past month, I've been looking for people like that and asking them if they could explain why. Every single one of them tried to pick a fight when I asked, until yesterday someone gave me the name of a specialist who would be able to explain my situation."

"And this specialist lives in Japan," Hermione concluded.

"You're seeing people glow?" Ron gaped. "That's err, like aura reading or something from Divinations class. Wicked! Geez, mate, guess after coming back from dying, it's nice to have something to show for it. What color am I?"

"Interestingly enough, you and Hermione are the same color," Harry grinned, quickly finishing his packing.

"Yeah? Well come on," Ron wheedled. "Tell us already!"

His trunk snapping shut, Harry pulled out his International Portkey from his pocket before answering.

"I'll bring lots of pretty pink flowers to you guys' wedding," he teased. "Shrine maiden," he activated, and was portkeyed away.

"Pink? _Pink?_" Ron spluttered indignantly. "Oi, I am not pink!" he protested to the empty spot where Harry had stood seconds ago. "Hermione! I don't look like a pink person to you, do I?"

But Hermione was certainly looking very pink in the face just then. "Honestly Harry," she muttered, self-consciously brushing her robes off for dust as she made to leave the room. "It's a bit early to be talking about weddings."

* * *

><p>"Welcome to Japan," greeted an automated voice as Harry fell onto the ground upon arriving. "Please exit the area promptly to make way for incoming guests. The information desk can be found following the green arrows on the floor. For gift shops, please follow the blue, and for refreshments, please follow the red. We hope you enjoy your stay in our beautiful country. Thank you."<p>

Harry picked himself off the floor as the voice began to speak in Japanese, presumably repeating its speech. He followed the green arrows to the information desk, purchased a translation ward, and received apparition coordinates closest to a remote temple high up in a mountain on private land. It seemed this Genkai person the woman directed him to was a bit of a recluse.

He apparated to the edge of a forest, transfigured his robes into muggle clothing, and resigned himself to some hiking. Apparently the private land extended quite far, and it was only common courtesy and common sense to not apparate on a stranger's property.

He was weaving through a sinister feeling forest, making occasional sharp turns when the feeling of oil crept over his skin. It was an extremely uncomfortable sensation, and Harry was just starting to feel a little panicked with his ignorance about what was causing it when he heard noises in the distance. Interspersed with echoing crashes were faint cursing and yells, too far away to understand. Moving towards the sounds, the forest gave way to reveal a tall cliff that rose up towards the sky in a gigantic vertical rock face. Towards the top, he saw a pair of people literally leaping up the wall with the smallest of footholds as leverage.

The shorter of the two reached the top first, waited a moment for the other to catch up, then proceeded to completely defeat the taller person in hand to hand combat, hopped off the cliff edge, and slid down the side like a snowboarder, leaving a trail of dust in the being's wake.

Harry gaped at the sight of physical prowess, completely speechless as the person, who became recognizable as a very short old woman when she drew closer, walked up to him.

"Well, what do you want?" she snapped.

'Merlin Harry,' he thought miserably to himself. 'What have you gotten yourself into?'

"Come on, speak up," she demanded when he didn't say anything. "Don't tell me you don't understand Japanese. I sure as hell don't speak anything else."

"Er, sorry to disturb?" Harry stuttered out, trying to voice the words his translation ward was feeding into his mind and wincing when his tongue completely butchered the pronunciation. Thankfully, it seemed she understood, so it did its job.

"You already have," she snorted. "Talk or leave, I've already got one idiot wasting my time, I don't need another."

"Sorry, er, are you Genkai?"

"That's me, why?"

"Someone recommended you to me," Harry sounded out carefully, digging into a pocket for the paper he received a few days ago. "She said you were a specialist of some sort and could explain to me why I've started to see people glow."

"Started seeing people glow, hm?" she repeated, taking the paper from Harry's hand and locking eyes onto the header of the sheet that Harry assumed was the name of the company the woman worked at.

"Is the company name familiar to you?"

"Don't be ridiculous, I don't read English," she replied, handing the paper back. "Though I see now why she might have sent you here. In England, knowledge is kept very tightly in individual families. You'd be more likely killed than taught."

Harry winced, remembering all the times he was attacked after his questions.

"So tell me," Genkai continued, "when did this new ability of yours start?"

"A little over a month ago."

"Did anything supernatural happen around that time? Did you get possessed by any ghosts, attacked by demons maybe?"

"Er," Harry thought desperately. This was awkward – what could he say? She didn't seem to be a witch, but she knew about not-so-muggle beings. Except that plenty of people were attacked by demons without gaining any new abilities, and that the ghosts back at Hogwarts were an everyday thing, and certainly never possessed anyone, so it was odd that she'd suggest so. "I might have died?" he decided to confess. Clearly he was going to have to take some risks if he wanted answers.

Genkai heaved an irritated sigh. "Another one, just great. I'm going to need to have a chat with Koenma about this. Two failed soul relocations in as many years is a bit ridiculous."

"Excuse me?" Harry asked, confused by the implication of her words. Someone else had also succeeded in coming back from the dead? What did she mean by soul relocation, and who the hell was Koenma?

"Never you mind," she dismissed. "Come with me." Genkai walked over to the bottom of the cliff where she was soon joined by a teenage boy who leapt down the last bit of height and collapsed on the ground in exhaustion. Harry was shocked to see he had steel balls shackled to his feet as weights.

"Finally managed to join us, slacker?" she sneered. "Get up. We're going in for tea."

"Oh lovely," came the sarcastic reply. "And I suppose you'll be wanting me to drink it while standing on my head, you old hag?"

"Don't be ridiculous," she retorted. "The guest and I will be drinking tea from my cups. You will figure out how to use your spirit energy to hold the liquid or go without. There's plenty of water in the rivers around here if you fail, so you won't die of thirst anytime soon."

The boy gave the woman the middle finger, but obligingly picked himself up off the ground and, dragging his weights behind him, followed her as she led them through the forest.

Harry walked with the two, feeling nervous and awkward. They appeared to be in a very abrasive teacher-student relationship that consisted of training which would probably kill Harry several times over.

He kept silent for awhile, occupied by walking through the thick forest and trying not to get smacked in the face by too many branches. The boy had no such problems, shoving the branches aside as they came and his steel weights thumping along when he dragged them over raised tree roots, each dull thud making Harry more anxious. The weird feeling of oil was creeping up his arms now, as if it were some sentient entity baited by the noise.

"Er, I'm sorry. I don't really understand the situation," Harry spoke up towards Genkai, the slimy sensation along his skin growing increasingly more irritating, "but would it be possible for him to take those weights off until we get out of this forest?" he requested, glancing around. "I know it's rather silly, but the noise makes me feel like we're about to be attacked any second now."

"Ha, no worries there," the boy said before Genkai could respond. "Anything in here that tries to attack us will learn pretty quick that it's a bad idea to mess with Yusuke Urameshi. Only small fry live in these parts."

"Cocky ass," Genkai quipped.

"Bitchy hag," the boy, Yusuke, threw back with a grin.

Well, at least it seemed the two enjoyed their unconventional partnership.

After another half hour of trekking and no less than four unfamiliar –talking – creatures which Genkai called demons attacked them and were soundly knocked out by Yusuke, the trio exited the forest, stepping over a simple rope boundary line on which hung evenly spaced strips of paper. In the distance, a temple shrine could be seen on the other side of the grassy plain.

"You really live in a temple, then?" Harry asked.

"That's right," Genkai confirmed, "though it's been long abandoned by its followers. No one's come to worship or pray in years so I'm free to do whatever I like."

"I'll say," Yusuke cut in with a barking laugh. "You remodeled the shrine area into an arcade! That's blasphemy if anything is."

"Oh? And who was it yesterday whining that I should let him play in it for free?"

"Tch, do I look like some pious sucker to you? I'm telling you, seeing some toddler in charge of the afterlife takes all the fear of God outta ya."

"So you're the other person who came back from the dead that Genkai mentioned?" Harry interrupted.

"Yeah, that's me," Yusuke confirmed, stretching his upper body as he walked, already looking like he recovered from his fatigue. "Hey wait a minute, what do you mean, 'other person'?"

"Just like what it sounds like, idiot," Genkai disparaged. "The kid says he died before too."

"Oh wow, you'd think Botan would mention something like that to me, especially since it's supposed to only happen, like, once every century. So did you have to go through some stupid test to come back too, or what?"

"Test? Er, no, not really. Or well, I don't think so." Was choosing to come back a test? Harry wondered. "I was only dead for a few minutes. What was it like for you?"

"What? Man, that is so not cool," Yusuke complained. "_My_ body was dead for over a day, and I wasn't allowed to go back in for practically weeks! What gives, huh?"

"Do shut your mouth, you half-wit," Genkai sneered. "We'll talk it over tea, and if possible, get someone from Spirit World to help clear up a few things, like why they didn't have the decency to give the boy some information about his new abilities before spitting him back here."

Harry, completely and utterly lost amidst the mentions of Spirit World, some person named Botan, a means of contacting the world of the dead other than the Resurrection Stone, and the teen's vague story of his time dead, was starting to feel irritated.

"Exactly how were you brought back from the dead anyway?" the wizard asked. He was pretty sure the boy was a muggle, so it couldn't have been magical means.

"Stupid story, really," Yusuke scowled as they walked into the temple and through the main hall of the dusty building. "I ditched school after homeroom and met this little kid playing soccer by the road. His ball went into the road, he chased after it, I pushed the kid out the way of a car, and Bam! Dead as a doornail."

"Seriously?" Harry gaped, somewhat impressed at the moral fiber of the younger male before him, but much more shocked over the fact that something as ordinary as a car accident could lead to something as extraordinary as revival from the dead. Hermione had half a dozen theories about why the killing curse latched onto the horcrux and spared Harry, but being run into by a car simply damaged the body beyond recovery. "How do you come back from that?"

"Now see, here's where it gets really stupid!" Yusuke stated pointedly, while Genkai gestured for them to take a seat on the floor whilst she went to fetch the tea. "Turns out no one was supposed to rescue the kid, he was supposed to get away from the accident just fine through a combination of bad driving and a soccer ball cushion, making my death pointless. The grim reaper, who turns out to be this irritatingly cheery girl, Botan, with blue hair who rides a boat oar like a fairy-tale witch rides a broom, came and said they didn't have a place for me in Spirit World 'cause they never predicted I might die! 'Course, that's probably lucky for me, 'cause then Koenma decided that it might be easier to just bring me back to life rather than whatever else it is they normally do for dead people. I had to go through a couple of stupid tests, but no written exams, at least, so it was all good. I went back to my body, Keiko donated some life energy to revive me, and voila, here I am. Though, after I came back, I was suckered into taking the Spirit Detective job which is the reason I'm in this mess of a tournament," he muttered.

"Stop complaining and do something productive, slacker," Genkai barked, setting down a tray with a teapot and two Japanese styled tea cups. "Focus your Spirit Energy," she instructed, pouring a cup of tea for herself and Harry.

"What's your name, then?" she asked, handing a cup to Harry.

"Harry," he replied after thanking her for the tea. "Harry Potter."

"Harry, hmm? How much do you know about the supernatural, Harry?" she asked, sipping lightly on her tea.

"Oh Merlin, this is awkward," he muttered to himself in English. He had assumed that because all the brightly glowing people were muggles, there would be no problems in hiding his status as a wizard. He realized now that was a rather stupid assumption. What kind of normal muggle condition results after dying? Now he had no idea what he was allowed to say. The Statute of Secrecy was a rather finicky thing with some vague rules.

The main idea was that magic could only be discussed with or shown to people who were already aware of it, or had it. Exceptions only included close family members, hence why Seamus' dad wasn't told about Seamus' mom being a witch until after the marriage – he wasn't family until then.

The 'already aware of it' clause was a bit ambiguous, however. Muggles who are accidently exposed to magic are normally obliviated. Sometimes though, muggles with a particular job or contacts are left alone. Because they were exposed through the accident, they could then be properly informed, bound to a confidentiality contract, and hired to do jobs like take care of scheduling meetings between the muggle and magical ministers, or transport magical criminals from muggle prisons and holding cells for proper trial under magical law, so on and so forth.

These two knew of ghosts, some sort of supernatural creatures called demons, and are in contact with people who live in the realm of the dead. They can certainly keep secrets as they have their own secret world that seemed to revolve around this Spirit Energy Genkai kept mentioning, and if worst comes to worst, the UK would never let their Savior, Harry Potter, be prosecuted for anything short of murder so soon after the Final Battle at Hogwarts.

"Do you believe in magic?"

"No," came the blunt reply. "And you'd best get any thoughts of the supernatural being related to flashy magical powers out of your head. I hate people who think having a little power in controlling Spirit Energy is the quick and easy answer to all their problems."

"Actually," Harry countered wryly, though he had no idea how well he managed to convey his tone of voice through the butchering he was doing of the Japanese language, "magic is no quick and easy answer to all our problems. Hell, it almost creates more problems than it's worth."

"Whoa, hold on there."

Harry turned towards Yusuke just in time to see a glow around the teen's hands flicker and die. Apparently with his focus directed at something else, he couldn't continue with his given task of creating a cup. Harry wondered about this strange chore of his. As far as he could tell, this Spirit Energy was incapable of manifesting itself as something solid, but perhaps it was forceful enough to feel solid when concentrated properly?

"Are you trying to tell us," the boy asked, cutting Harry's theorizing short, "that you can do magic?"

Rather than answer verbally, the wizard withdrew his wand from up his sweater sleeve and duplicated his tea cup, contents and all.

Genkai and Yusuke stared as suddenly there were three tea cups on the table.

"When I was eleven years old," Harry started to explain, "I received a letter congratulating me for being accepted to Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Over the next seven years I spent in the Wizarding World, I've seen ghosts, unicorns, Giants, centaurs, pixies, and mermaids. There are creatures that can suck out your soul, creatures only visible to those who've seen someone die, and creatures that can depict your worst fear as a self-defense mechanism. Magical items include the Philosopher's stone, invisibility cloaks, wands, and flying brooms. Humans with magic can create objects both real and illusionary, make some things fly and other things grow, brew potions to cure diseases or poison a person, etcetera, etcetera. However, magical ghosts do not possess people, I've never heard of demons intelligent enough for human speech like those we encountered in the forest, and even magical people do not often come back from the dead."

"I suppose asking you about your knowledge of the supernatural is rather ridiculous then, isn't it?" Genkai asked rhetorically, eying the rubber ball Harry had conjured during his explanation and was now directing around in figure eights with a simple levitation charm. "This complicates things a great deal. Ah," she sighed, sipping her tea. "I'm too old for this. Boy, get Koenma over here."

"What?" Yusuke protested. "And how exactly am I supposed to do that? He pops in and out whenever he damn well pleases, that irritating toddler, and whenever I ask Botan for a way to talk to him so I can give him a piece of my mind, she says he's busy, what with running Spirit World in his dad's seat and all that crap."

"That's because he _is_ very busy, Yusuke," came the voice of a young woman. "Master Koenma has a lot of work to do."

"Botan?"

"Bingo!" was the cheery reply. Her ponytail bounced as she shuffled into the room dressed in a pink kimono. "Hey there, Yusuke, how's the training coming along? Do you really have time to be taking a break like this?"

"Young lady," Genkai cut in. "You have direct access to Koenma, don't you? Tell him we need to chat."

"Master Genkai! Goodness, why ever would you need to – oh!" she exclaimed, finally noticing that someone she didn't recognize was also sitting on the floor by the table with the tea, staring at her bright blue hair. Even Tonks had never worn that color with any frequency. "Well hello there, I'm Botan. And who are you?"

"Harry," he answered, scrambling to his feet to shake her hand. "So you're the Grim Reaper?"

"Oh, yes, did Yusuke tell you that? Really Yusuke, you shouldn't just go around revealing stuff like that," she scolding, smacking him upside the head.

"Ow, geez Botan, you'd think I'd tell just anybody that? They'd think I was insane!"

"It wouldn't be any worse than their current opinion of you, you delinquent. So Master Genkai, why do you need to speak with Master Koenma?"

Genkai pointed towards Harry who was now standing awkwardly against the wall, fully aware of how much trouble he was apparently creating and feeling a bit guilty for it. "The young'un came to me because he recently gained the ability to see Spirit Energy after dying. He also claims he can do magic, and as far I can tell he's telling the truth. His Spirit Energy was completely quiescent when he demonstrated his supernatural abilities."

Botan's eyes widened at the term magic, and a hand raised over her mouth in shock as Genkai finished explaining. "That's not possible," she denied. "All witches and wizards aren't capable of interacting with Spirit Energy – their magic won't allow it! It's impossible!" she repeated for emphasis.

"I've been told I do that a lot," Harry drawled.

"So it's true?" Yusuke asked. "Magic's real? The guy's a freaking wizard?"

"Oh my goodness, I have to report this Master Koenma. I'm terribly sorry for all this, Master Genkai. I'll be back as soon as I can." And with that, the blue-haired girl pulled out a rowboat paddle from nowhere, and rode it side-straddle into the sky.

"Well then, there's not much to do until she gets back," Genkai said to the two males. "Perhaps you could come back tomorrow, Harry? If you follow the front entrance, you'll see a dirt trail that will lead you to a bus stop."

"Right, thanks, for everything," Harry nodded. "And sorry for all the trouble."

Genkai waved off his apology, turning back to his disciple and scolding him for not even trying to complete his task, to which the boy complained that only old people drank tea anyway.

Harry walked down the steps at the front entrance and then, looking at his tourist guide he picked up from the information desk at the international portkey station, apparated to a nearby wizarding alley. He'd find a hotel there to stay the night.

**A/N: I've got a few chapters of this in backup. **

**If you're a YuYuHakusho fan, it'll probably get a bit boring during the first round of the Dark Tournament, but I'm hoping to change things a bit from then onwards. **

**If you're a Pirate Potter or Pirate Conqueror follower, worry not. I still plan to prioritize my OP/HP fics over any other random ideas I get.**

**Let me know if you like this story-line so far, though :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: For a YYH/HP crossover, this received a surprisingly significant welcome. Perhaps a result of all you lovely people who have me on author alert? :)**

2.

"Yo! What's this I hear from Botan about a wizard who can see Spirit Energy?"

Genkai glanced away from where she had her student using his Spirit Energy to run on tall spikes without getting skewered.

"You came faster than I expected," Genkai noted. She had sent Harry away just two hours earlier. "Is it so horrifying a possibility for a wizard to do so?"

The floating toddler groaned around his pacifier. "You have no idea. Witches and wizards are finicky about their afterlife. Their magic leads them to their own plane just barely connected to the rest of the Spirit World, but the paperwork involved just ensuring that those with enough investment in the Wizarding world who have no magic of their own also ends up there, or at least as close as we can get without blindly chucking them off the edge of our realm is absolutely horrendous!"

Genkai scoffed. "Don't give me that crap, Koenma. This is about more than just paperwork. Why does it bother you so much that Harry can see Spirit Energy?"

Koenma sighed, before sitting cross-legged in the air with a small pout. "It's strange. No possessor of magic has ever before been made aware of Spirit World or Spirit Energy on their own. Their magic overwhelms any sixth sense they might have, so while some can see an aura of magic around other magic-users or feel the magic in the air from wards and spells, Spirit Energy goes completely under their radar. Are you sure this person was a wizard?"

"Of course not," Genkai replied, turning back to watch Yusuke move on to the next part of his obstacle course. "However, I've no other explanation for what he managed to demonstrate. His Spirit Energy is a very bright and distinctive green which remained just as calm and flowing before, during, and after his demonstration of his magical powers. Unique, handcrafted tea cups do not spontaneously clone themselves, nor do rubber balls appear out of nowhere and decide to dance in the air for whole minutes at a time. From your reaction thus far, it's clear that at the very least, magic is real. Whatever Harry Potter is, a wizard is just as good an explanation as any other."

Koenma inhaled so quickly that he nearly choked on his pacifier. "_Harry Potter? The wizard is Harry Potter?_"

Genkai gave him a look. "What about it?"

Koenma coughed for a few seconds before coming back to grips with himself and groaned. "My dad is going to be so upset. He never liked witches and wizards much, so it's good that there's little interaction with them. But, _Harry Potter_. If it were anyone else, then it could be hushed up pretty quick, but _Harry Potter! _Once the UK Ministry of Magic catches wind of their savior's new ability, it'd be the new biggest thing in their whole society!"

"Hmph," Genkai huffed. "I'm decidedly not interested. You can talk to the boy yourself tomorrow. That's when I told him to come back."

"Very well," Koenma agreed. "I'll have Botan come stay the night so she can alert me of his arrival. Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Genkai. Koenma out." And with that, the toddler popped out of the air, presumably back to Spirit World.

* * *

><p>Harry woke up early the next morning due to, er, portkey-lag, wondering when exactly he should be returning to Genkai's. Boton had given little indication of when to expect a reply from this Koenma person, and he had no way of contacting any of them without popping over. They were all muggles, and worse still, muggles without phones as Harry very much doubted any telephone lines extended into the large area of private land Genkai owned.<p>

In the end, he decided he may as well wait for word from Koenma at Genkai's rather than pace around at the inn. He didn't think the hour would be a problem. Martial artists were all early risers or something, right?

This time he apparated onto the front steps and walked up to the door, knocking on the wooden frame while calling out, "Hello?"

"You're here!" came the cheery greeting. The door was quickly opened by Botan who gestured him in. Today, she was wearing navy blue jeans and a loose yellow sweater.

"Good morning, Botan. I wasn't expecting you to be here so early," Harry commented, tilting his head slightly in confusion for more than one reason. Today her bubblegum-pink glow seemed a little, muffled? It was hard to tell with his glasses on.

"I could say the same," she returned with a cheery smile, withdrawing a compact mirror from her pocket. Flipping it open, she talked into it, "Koenma, are you there?"

"Yo!" came a voice from the mirror. "Is he there already?"

"That's right, Master Koenma. Can you come now?"

Rather than answer, Koenma popped directly into the room with them, prompting Harry to instinctively draw his wand and point it at the unexpected arrival.

When he got a good look, however, he gaped at the toddler that was floating in the air beside them. The small boy was wearing a blue robe – not styled like a wizard's robe, but more like an old fashioned Japanese casual robe – and a tall blue hat with red accents and a red sash tied around his waist. In his mouth was a light blue pacifier that oddly didn't seem to affect his speech at all.

"So you're Harry Potter, hmm?"

Harry groaned. "Don't tell me I'm famous in your world too?"

"Quite the opposite, really," Koenma assured him. "What with your death experience and all, Spirit World is trying to keep your existence hush-hush, and with your new abilities, the secrecy is even more vital. If Demon World ever found out there were wizards capable of both magic and spirit powers, who knows what they might try to do. I do hope you plan on keeping this new ability of yours quiet?"

Harry nodded vigorously. "I've already mentioned it to my two best friends, but all of us would prefer to keep any new oddness about myself out of the public. Most people back home don't even know I died – they assumed Voldemort was lying about killing me, or that I was playing dead waiting for the advantage."

"Well that's something I suppose," Koenma muttered. "Is there anything else we need to talk about?"

Harry and Botan traded looks. Suddenly, they were both reminded of the fact that it was Genkai who had called for Koenma to get answers. Botan understood the situation by now, having been given Harry's file while at Spirit World, and Harry had simply wanted to know more about his ability when he came to Japan.

Although, if the head of Spirit World was offering…

"What is this Spirit World exactly?" Harry asked. "When I died, I remember being at King's Cross Station, talking to Dumbledore. Is that a part of it?"

"Hmm, no, not really," Koenma answered. "When a person dies, their soul and body separate. Normally, a guide is needed to take that soul from the human world to their new home in Spirit World. Botan is one such guide. Whether or not the soul becomes a ghost depends on how successfully they refuse their guide.

"For those with magic, however, it is different. When a magical being dies, their soul and body separate still, but there is no need for a Spirit World guide. About an hour or so after dying, the magic leaves the dead body to find the soul and manifest the soul's final desires. If after the hour of reflection the soul chooses to stay, the magic will infuse the soul with enough energy to become a ghost, visible and audible to human eyes and ears. If the soul is willing to move on, the magic acts as a kind of vessel, bringing them to your afterlife.

"Your afterlife is technically still part of the Spirit World, though pretty much out of our jurisdiction. We mostly communicate in organizing the new homes of non-magicals who were involved in the Wizarding world, or processing visitation requests from their people to visit our residents.

"But I digress. The answer to your question is that the vision you saw after dying was likely just in your head since you weren't dead long enough to be taken from the human world. Its possible this Dumbledore figure did come to speak with you, I'm not sure. It's rare, but occasionally souls in the magical afterlife come to visit the dying to convince them to make one choice or another. I'm vague on the details since it's not part of my jurisdiction."

"I see," Harry mumbled, trying to wrap his mind around all this new information. "Er, where's Genkai, anyway?"

"Outside training Yusuke," Botan informed them. "That's right, Koenma, sir, did you answer all her questions yesterday?"

"I believe so," Koenma replied. "And if that's all, I'll have to be getting back. George has been getting on my case lately."

"Of course, sir. Have a safe trip back!" Botan wished cheerily.

"Yeah, er, thanks for coming to clear that stuff up," Harry added.

"Not a problem. Let's just try and keep this whole thing on the down-low, right?" Koenma requested once more, and then popped silently out of existence.

"That's a lot quieter than apparation," Harry observed.

"It helps that he doesn't have a body to transport," Botan explained. "And even if he did, he's had seven centuries to figure out how to teleport silently."

"Seven centuries?" Harry repeated incredulously. That little child was older than the Flamels!

"Mm-hmm," Botan confirmed, turning around to look out the back door. "Oh look, they're coming back!"

Genkai strode in calmly as Yusuke staggered in behind her. "Oh? You've come already? Did you speak to Koenma yet?"

"Yeah, he just left," Harry said.

"Yes, and I must be going as well," Botan suddenly announced. "It was good seeing you all again. You work hard, Yusuke! The others are busy training too."

"Ha!" Yusuke grinned with his trademark smirk. "You tell them I wish them all the luck, 'cause I'm still going to cream Kuwabara into the ground when I get back."

"You're such a child, Yusuke," Botan sighed. "Good bye Master Genkai, so long Harry." She skipped out the door and hopped down the steps out of view.

Genkai had them all settled down for another round of tea with Yusuke once more set to the task of manifesting his Spirit Energy into a solid form.

"What is he training for exactly?" Harry inquired.

"His Spirit Awareness. That's your new talent, by the way. Your ability to see the Spirit Energy of those around you, as well as how you navigated the forest yesterday without being attacked is proof of your consciousness of the energy emitted by the soul.

"The dimwit here is currently only aware enough to gather his Spirit Energy into bursts of energy, while a friend of his has enough control to create and use it as a sword. Of course, with his bullheadedness, Yusuke will likely never be able to do the same. But by increasing his understanding of his own flow of energy, he might be able to increase the number of bullets in his arsenal, as well as gaining the ability to utilize my Spirit Wave technique. One can only hope.

"It figures that after all my tests that emphasized the importance of Spirit Awareness, I'd end up with a student who has no appreciation for the skill."

"Yeah, well, at least you didn't end up getting a demon for a student that would've killed you right after learning your powers," Yusuke shot back.

"I'm getting the feeling that you've led a very interesting life, Yusuke," Harry observed. "Possibly even more so than mine."

"Eh, only for the past year or so," Yusuke waved off. "Before that I was just the worst punk of Sarayashiki Junior High. Gotta say though, fighting demons is a lot more interesting than just beating Kuwabara's face in everyday."

Harry shook his head. "I don't think I'll ever understand that kind of feeling," he shrugged. "I've never been particularly fond of fighting for fun."

"Well then you have the right skill," Genkai offered. "With your awareness come two main uses – manipulation of your energy for offensive purposes, and sensing other's energy for defensive purposes. If you follow your instincts from now on, you'll likely never be caught in an ambush ever again, human or otherwise."

"Huh, that seems useful."

"Indeed," Genkai stated dryly. "Unfortunately, I'm quite busy for the next few months making sure this brat will survive the tournament he had been so kindly invited to. You are welcome to join us for as long as you can stay. I'll give you tasks to perform each day and perhaps some advice if I'm in a good mood, but you'll mostly be on your own. Is that understood?"

"Of course," Harry agreed. "I'm very grateful for all this," he added firmly. Genkai didn't seem the type to take on students at a whim, so while he didn't know why she was apparently making an exception for him, he was nonetheless thankful.

"Very well, you might as well try doing what this boy is failing miserably at. Come along, slacker. We're going back outside to do something you actually have some hope of succeeding at."

Harry was left behind in the temple with his task while Genkai and Yusuke left for training once more.

Making a cup, huh? Harry wondered if it'd be anything like conjuring with magic. The thing was, with magic, he wasn't exactly aware of the purposeful manipulation of his magic to create an object. His wand was responsible for that task while his mind visualized the end result.

Perhaps?

Harry took his glasses off and concentrated on the green glow of his body. There was a slow but steady flow of the energy around his body with occasional wisps of it escaping and dissipating from his skin. Focusing, he tried to imagine a decent chunk of energy leaving the flow for him to mold into a different shape.

However, much like the small dissipating wisps, the chunks would dissolve as soon as they were forced out of the current. Trying to remove a larger mass only resulted in a small explosion, not unlike the occasional backfired spells during the early months of spell learning at Hogwarts.

Apparently Spirit Energy was unstable when static. But how else was he to use it then?

Harry huffed irritably and conjured a mirror to crouch in front of it to get a better look at his Spirit Energy flow. What exactly _could_ he do with it?

This time, instead of tearing away a chunk of energy, he extended his arm out and tried to imagine the flow expanding outwards like an inflating glove. It was a bit hard to see the three dimensional effect in a two dimensional mirror, but there was no doubt his arm's green blur started to enlarge as he squinted in the mirror.

The change was stable as long as he kept his mind focused and the current strong, but how could he use this? He was suddenly reminded of a few early transfiguration exercises when they learned to re-picture objects as if they could be remolded like clay. Instead of creating something completely new, he really just needed to reshape his already existing energy.

Harry brought his hand palm up in front of him and pointed his fingers upwards to create a cup-like shape. If he forced his aura to first keep that shape, then pictured it flowing down from the edges, and finally moved his fingers to pinch it towards the side, the energy's beginning and end from his index finger was almost like holding a cup by its handle.

For a minute Harry could only stare at his apparent success, feeling almost giddy. He had never learned anything so quickly since his first ride on a broom. It was surprisingly easy to manipulate this Spirit Energy of his. Of course, six years of visualization practice at Hogwarts probably didn't go amiss.

As he was thinking this, however, the cup started to shrink in towards his fingers, unable to be maintained so far from its source in so strange a shape. Scowling, Harry firmly pictured the original cup's size and pushed the green glow back in place. So it wasn't quite like doing magical transfiguration. With transfigurations, it was all or nothing. You either failed the spell or succeeded. Sure, there were the mediums of how long your spells lasted, but there wasn't anything you could do to change that after the spell was cast. This Spirit Energy manipulation was more like defensive spells where a shield such as Protego or curse like Crucio needed to be maintained through a constant feed of magic.

Down from his high, he suddenly worried if his creation could hold liquid. It certainly didn't look very solid.

Harry sighed and awkwardly reached for the teapot, attempting to pour with his less dexterous left hand. He dipped a little too far, a gush of tea almost flooding the cup which wavered with the new weight. Concentrating on maintaining the image of a cup, the shape stabilized.

Success! Could he drink from this? Cold tea probably wouldn't taste very good, though, even if he did like this strange Asian tea.

A grumble from his stomach snapped him out of thought, the sudden distraction also causing him to drop the visual in his mind, the cup snapping back to its normal flow around his hand and cold tea spilling on the floor.

A Scourgify was on the tip of his wand when the wet spots began to spark and sizzle. A few seconds later, the liquid had evaporated, leaving behind scorch marks on the wooden floorboard. Harry stared, his hunger forgotten.

Bloody hell. That can't be normal.

* * *

><p>"Man, don't you find it strange having a wizard in your home right now?"<p>

"You hardly should be worrying about him right now, dimwit," Genkai retorted from her place beside him. The two of them were in a grassy field, both upside-down with a single finger over a needle, using a tightly concentrated point of Spirit Energy to balance on the sharp points.

"Aw, come on, Grandma," Yusuke grinned. "You can't tell me it didn't shock you to find out magic is real."

Genkai simply grunted in response.

"Although, I gotta say, this Harry guy looks pretty weak," the teen thought aloud. "Like I could knock him out with a single punch. I guess wizards don't really do fist fights, huh? You think I could beat him in a fight?"

"It matters little," Genkai finally spoke. "He looks to have some experience in fighting, but he has no warrior mindset. The boy would be better off ignoring his Spirit Awareness and going back to a normal life."

"So why'd you offer to train him, then? I remember Kuwabara once said you could turn down lower a person's spirit sense – couldn't you do that for him?"

"Don't be ridiculous. A spirit sense is not so simply blocked. Doing so could easily result in complications in both the soul and the physical body." She pointedly ignored the first question about why she agreed to train him, pushing herself off the needle into the air where she did a half flip to put herself right-side up.

"Prepare yourself," she suddenly shouted, pointing a finger at her student like a gun.

"What? Hey, hold on!" Yusuke started to panic slightly, extending his free arm to maintain balance as his legs scissored in surprise.

Genkai, of course, paid no heed to his protests and an explosion rang through the clearing, Yusuke blown off the needle from the impact.

"Cheh, pathetic," Genkai evaluated. "Get up; we'll have to do it again."

"God damn it, Grandma, you old hag."

* * *

><p>"What do you want?"<p>

The small red demon shifted nervously in place, his tail twitching behind him. "I've got some pretty valuable information that I'm sure the committee would be interested in hearing," he simpered to the Toguro brothers who stood guard outside the conference room.

"Oh?" the younger, but significantly larger, demon of the Toguro brothers asked in a deadpan voice. "I'll be the judge of that," he said, his elder brother snickering from his perch on his sibling's shoulder as the pathetic lower-being hunched over in a cowardly show of 'respect.'

"Of course, of course," the red demon quickly agreed. "But you know, I'm not sure information like this should be said so openly, you see, and of course, there's a matter of payment. It's pretty dangerous intel I picked up in a pretty dangerous location, you see," he hemmed and hawed, his large ears wagging at the sides of his head.

"I assure you that you will find us far more dangerous," the younger Toguro calmly declared. "Where did you find your information?" he asked, generously allowing the demon to keep the actual information to himself a bit longer.

"The Dark Forest on Genkai's land. I overheard a series of very interesting conversations there…" he trailed off in a sleazy attempt to sound like he was holding something tantalizing just out of reach.

"Genkai. What do you think, Brother?" the younger's deep voice rumbled.

The elder Toguro cackled a little through his long, limply curling hair that partially obscured his face. "I think we should just kill the thing already, dear Brother."

"That might upset our employer," the younger Toguro countered. He stood silently judging the red demon a few moments longer through his thin sunglasses before raising a hand up to knock on the door behind him. "If they decide what you have to offer is useless, I don't know what they'll order me to do to you," he cautioned in his low, monotone voice. It wasn't a threat. Toguro was an employed demon with a generous salary, after all. Any violence he might need to commit on the red demon would be purely business.

The information broker just smirked. There was no way they wouldn't be interested in Genkai's newest student, considering who her other human was. And seeing as the team of humans and traitorous demons was still short a member…

* * *

><p>"Koenma, sir, you have a letter," an ogre announced as he walked into his boss' office.<p>

"What is it now?" Koenma groused, stamping his approval through a tall stack of papers. "It better not be another complaint from City of Oranges. I'm not going to approve of them growing human world oranges in Spirit World."

"Uh, no sir, actually, it's from the committee for the Dark Tournament."

"What?" Koenma dropped his stamp and quickly stood on top of his chair, leaning over his desk to stare at the ogre. "What do they want? They've already invited their guests, I've already signed the papers necessary as owner of the guest team, and the location is the same as every year. Everything else they take of themselves."

The ogre, having no answer to give, handed the letter over.

Koenma tore it open and quickly read it through, then read it a second time, hands trembling. Slumping down, papers flew everywhere as he knocked a stack off the desk.

"My dad is going to kill me."

**A/N: And so the insanity begins...**

**To make things clear, since Kingdark has brought the issue up already, this story will NOT BE SLASH. In fact, there probably won't be any romance involved at all except the occasional references to Kuwabara/Yukina, Yusuke/Keiko, Ron/Hermione, and Harry/Ginny. In other words, I'm sticking to canon relationships and not making any new ones.**

**18 reviews 4/14/12**

**Thanks so much for showing interest!**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: A lot of background and theory in this chapter, but I hope I've kept it somewhat readable anyways!**

3.

"You know, the Wizarding world at least had the decency to wait three and a half years before forcing me into a life-threatening tournament."

"I apologize, Harry," Koenma offered from the compact mirror Botan handed to the wizard that morning. "I have tried to convince the committee it was not in their best interests to get a wizard involved in this event, but they knew as well as I that I don't dare make too large a fuss for fear of the repercussions if it's all revealed to the Wizarding world."

"Okay, hold on," Harry interrupted, drawing a hand through his messy hair irritably. "I didn't ask before, because I certainly didn't care to advertise my new freakishness, but why is it a problem if the Wizarding world finds out about the Spirit World?"

"It's not that the Wizarding world is completely ignorant. I believe the relationship is similar to how the wizards treat muggles. Let the people in charge know, but only so it's easier to keep everyone else out of it. Of course, it's not quite the same. If you take the magical beings on one side and the muggles on the other, there are dozens of ways the wizards could successfully wipe out their non-magical counterparts. As such, it is in the muggle world's best interests to cooperate.

"In a battle between magic and Spirit Energy, however, who knows which side would win? Magic can exorcise ghosts and render physical attacks useless, but offers no defense against spirit attacks. On the other hand, a great deal of Spirit Energy's power is anchored to the physical world and thus vulnerable o magical attack. It is in both the Wizarding World and the Spirit World's best interests to keep most of their citizens ignorant of each other. But what if someone finds out that magical beings who die and return gain access to their Spirit Energy? It doesn't matter which underground finds out first, someone is going to get arrogant, thinking this to be the key to victory and attempt to force a repeat of your case through murder and experiments in order to gain the upper hand with the ultimate weapon, and we certainly don't want that, now do we?"

Harry felt queasy at the thought.

"And it's not only knowledge of Spirit World I'm afraid of being revealed but also that of Demon World, and these two worlds are so heavily involved with each other that it's impossible to learn of one and not the other."

"And it's a problem if we learn about Demon World why? Wizards already know about demons, you know, what with the kappas and grindylows."

"Those aren't real demons," Koenma informed. "Those are just ordinary magical creatures your world's taxonomists have classified under the term of demons. Real demons are completely different, with human-like intelligence and originating in a separate plane of existence. Quite possibly the only time the Wizarding World and Spirit World jointly cooperated in a project was in sealing the demon realm from the human world a millennium ago. It was with magical knowledge that the barrier was created, and while they were at it, the wizards cast a widespread curse that affected every new demon since, anchoring it to a single condition. As long as a magical creature is ignorant of the existence of the demon realm, he will be completely uninteresting and unappetizing to demons. If I remember my history correctly, before the curse, demons were especially fond of magical prey, so do try to keep your situation a secret."

"Oh Merlin," Harry groaned. "Wait, aren't we already screwed? I was invited because they found out I could do both magic and see Spirit Energy, right? So isn't the kneazle already out of the bag for precisely the most dangerous people to find out?"

"Not exactly," Koenma reassured him. "The demon who reported you didn't believe in the knowledge of magic he overheard, and the committee already put him down. It was bad luck on our part, actually, that the committee had a member I believe you would call a squib. They still don't know how you came about your new ability, so they're using this opportunity to find out. I've managed to swear them all to secrecy on the matter until after the Dark Tournament is concluded on the condition that you participate. You'll be introduced to the spectators and other tournament competitors as just another Spirit Energy wielding human. They don't even know your name yet, so you should hurry and choose an alias, otherwise someone might research your past and the wrong person will connect the dots. I've got every spirit and ogre I can spare working round the clock to isolate this information, and I've asked Genkai and Yusuke to clean out the dark forest on her land of any demon that may end up being an information leak for however long you stay here."

"And then what? What happens when the tournament is over?"

"The winners of the tournament are granted any wish that is within the committee's power to make true."

"And so I have just have to wish for them to keep their mouths shut about me," Harry deduced.

"Exactly. You'll likely be killed if you don't win, anyway, so losing this tournament is simply not an option. You'll be on the same team as Yusuke and his three friends. Good luck."

The mirror connection blinked out and Harry scowled. "Good luck my arse. I'm a bleeding wizard, not a martial artist! How am I supposed to win a stupid martial arts tournament against bloody demons while not causing Armageddon by breaking the curse anchor?"

* * *

><p>Harry warded his hotel room from top to bottom against intruders and eavesdroppers before starting a fire in the small fireplace designed especially for private floo calls. Taking a pinch of the magical green powder, he tossed it in the flames while declaring, "Grimmauld Place" before sticking his head into the fire.<p>

"Hello?" he called out to the empty room. It was barely 6am in London, but Hermione was always up this early to do light reading on various obscure subjects.

"Harry?" Sure enough, Hermione entered the greeting room with a cup of tea and a large tome. "Good of you to call, Harry!" she greeted pleasantly. "How's Japan? Have you learned anything yet about, you know?"

Harry grimaced. "Yeah, about that. I've got my side warded Hermione. Mind doing it to your side?"

Hermione immediately looked worried at the request. She hurriedly set down her cup and book on a coffee table and quickly flicked her wand through the complicated sequences to ward the area. "Alright Harry, what have you gotten yourself into this time and how can I help?"

"Know any spells that might be useful for a wizard to win a fight against superhumanly skilled martial artists?"

* * *

><p>"Your control is nothing short of genius for a rookie," Genkai complimented, "but your reserves are less than average. From the wavelength of your Spirit Energy, I see that you can replenish your reserved rather quickly, similar to Yusuke and probably for the same reason – your soul's traumatic experience of dying has forced it to adapt to dangerous situations. You will be unable to create any large Spirit attacks, but you will have an almost constant supply if you use it wisely. As for your Spirit Energy's strange quality…"<p>

The Spirit Wave master dipped a strip of paper into the water Harry was holding in his Spirit Energy cup. After a few seconds, the liquid began to corrode away the paper until the last ashes dissolved into dust between Genkai's fingers.

"It is not unprecedented for Spirit Energy to have its own properties, though certainly more common for Demon Energy. Amongst demons, a major form of classification is energy attributes. Some demons' energy burns like fire, some can freeze like ice, while others can manipulate the growth of plants, and still others have energy that can be implanted into objects as ticking bombs. We will have to devote some time properly exploring exactly what your energy can do before we fashion techniques to take advantage of it, but that can come later. Tell me, what experience do you have in fighting?"

Harry sighed. "I've been in several duels, a couple ambushes – both attacker and victim, and a battle or two, all with magic. Er, I guess other relevant experiences include infiltration of magical government building several times and fighting various monsters."

Genkai looked at the wizard oddly. "That's a rather strange resume."

"The Wizarding world was in war recently," Harry shrugged.

"Then is it safe to assume you'll have no qualms about fighting dirty? I assure you this tournament won't be fair or clean. Demons are not the noblest of creatures."

Harry nodded. "I understand. In this kind of situation, staying alive is of greater concern than any moral principles. I won't kill unless necessary, nor involve innocents in a fight that they shouldn't be involved in, but I can force submission, and I can torture."

"There will be plenty of killing at the tournament," Genkai snapped. "If the demons sense you are too queasy to murder, they will never submit."

Harry smiled grimly. "That will depend on the demon. Amongst wizards, there are three curses feared above all others; one means instant death, another creates unimaginable pain, and the last forces one's will onto another. I have already spoken with Koenma on this matter. He has agreed that I am allowed to use magic in this tournament as long as I avoid transfigurations and conjurations of any solid objects. All other magic can pass as manipulated Spirit Energy. My main problem won't be how effective my attacks can be in achieving victory – it's landing them while surviving any physical counterattacks that will give me trouble."

Genkai observed him for a moment, before sighing. "Very well, for now, I'll take your word for it. Then, do you have any ideas on how to, as you say, land your attacks while surviving any physical counterattacks?"

"I was actually hoping we could do some experimenting," Harry requested. "A friend of mine is helping me research spells and other magic that might help my situation. I had already found a ward that would help me dull the impact of physical attacks, but it hindered my magical casting ability. Hermione, however, found a spell and potion combination that can make muggle arrows from crossbows bounce off my skin when shot pointblank without any known side-effects other than the initial large power input needed to anchor the ward. As such, we're pretty sure it would work for punches too, but we don't have any idea about the effect a variable like Spirit Energy or Demon Energy would make."

* * *

><p>"So wait, you want me to punch you to test out this, uh, magic combo defense technique of yours?"<p>

"What? Harry, we did not agree on this!"

"Aww, come on Hermione, it's just a punch."

"Just a punch! Just a _punch?_ Anything that can do this is not just a punch!" Hermione gestured jerkily to her surroundings. Small craters were carved into the packed dirt and a few nearby trees were splintered after the beat-down Yusuke suffered at Genkai's hands just half an hour previous.

"Well, half the damage was caused by the Spirit blasts being fired, you know," Harry pointed out.

"Harry James Potter! That is not the point and you know it! If even one of these hits you in the chest or head and the physical defense doesn't work the way we want it to, you might end up dying permanently this time around!"

"Alright already," Harry grumbled. "Then what if I just stick my arm out against a wall and he punches that? Then the worst thing that could happen is you'll need to pull a Lockhart and I spend a night with Skelegrow."

"As well as fix your ruptured blood vessels, shredded muscles, and torn ligaments," Hermione added through clenched teeth. "And yes, Harry, I do know how and I did bring Skelegrow, but that doesn't mean I'm happy about this!"

"Hey now, don't I get a say in this?" Yusuke cut in. "I'm not sure how much I like the idea of breaking a guy's arm that isn't fighting back," he said skeptically. "If this was a fight, then awesome, and if I was mad at you for doing something stupid, I'd pound you into the floor, but if you're just going to stand there…"

"Oh buck up," Genkai retorted. "No else can do it but you and me, and since you hardly have the ability to analyze Spirit Energy effects, the attacking is up to you."

Before the two could really start arguing however, Harry threw a leg-locker at Yusuke. The boy dodged instinctively, but Harry quickly followed up with a series of relatively harmless jinxes, hexes, and charms. If Yusuke needed a fight, then Harry could do that.

As the occasional stinging hex and tripping jinx hit their mark, both boys were growing visibly tenser. Harry was realizing that the speed of his spells was no match for his opponent's superhumanly quick footwork and was quickly catching on that colorless spells, though they generally had a lower level effect, had a much better chance of not being dodged. Yusuke, however, practically snarled when the invisible hands grasped his feet once more. After eating dirt the first time, however, he was prepared to react in a more useful manner, curling his upper body inward to roll back up to his feet. Immediately he shot forward off his right foot. After sprinting to the wizard's left, he quickly turned at a ninety-degree angle to close in on Harry while his wand was still pointed in the other direction.

To Harry's eyes, it seemed Yusuke had disappeared, and for a split second he was at a loss when a chill swept through him from the left. His head barely turned when he locked eyes, too late, with Yusuke, who threw a singled punch at the arm Harry instinctively raised at the coming attack. The sheer force of the punch was mind-blowing, lifting Harry clean off his feet and flying through the air into a nearby tree where he came to a sudden stop.

"Harry!" Hermione ran over to where Harry slumped down on the ground, his right hand clutching his wand as he pressed the clenched fist into his shoulder.

"Bloody hell," Harry wheezed. "Well, it seems like it didn't work quite as well as we were hoping."

"Man, you alright?" Yusuke asked with awkward concern as he jogged over. "Cause your arm definitely looks broken, sorry about that."

Harry waved off his concern. "That was kind of the point to this whole thing. And it's not that bad," he added, looking down at his swelling limb. "I mean, at least it wasn't torn off like all those poor trees," he said as he eyed his surroundings.

Hermione immediately smacked her best friend upside the head in between diagnostic spells.

"Ow, 'Mione!"

"Don't you 'Mione' me, Harry! Even magic can't put back an amputated limb, so don't you dare even think of putting yourself into that kind of situation. As it is, you've a couple of fractures in your shoulder and a break in your upper arm. It's not a very clean break, I'm afraid, so I'm going to just vanish the splintered bits and put you on a half dose of Skelegrow."

"Cool, thanks 'Mione. I don't suppose you've a pain relieving potion?"

"You know very well you can't take that with Skelegrow, Harry," Hermione replied, exasperated. "Was second year that unmemorable?"

Genkai cleared her throat to interrupt the conversation, making both magicians flush lightly at the reminder that there were more important issues at hand.

"So what did we learn from that?" Harry asked as Hermione locally immobilized his left arm and shoulder to begin the healing process.

"That wizards have some really irritating spells," Yusuke frowned. "And when I punched you, it felt weird, like I was following through on the attack but not really."

"That's because your fist was halted, but your Spirit Energy was not," Genkai explained. "It seems that Harry's magical defense did what it was supposed to – stop physical attacks. But Yusuke's attack wasn't just physical. Spirit Energy has destructive physical effects, but isn't a physical thing itself, so it bypassed the defense and struck its target. It was weakened from the seperation, but it struck nonetheless."

Hermione hummed thoughtfully. "That makes sense. Some magical spells also have physical effects, like cutting curses, but this defense is useless against them anyway. It's also useless against physical attacks from magical creatures like dragons and hippogriffs, though I haven't researched much into the theory behind that yet."

"Well before that," Harry interrupted, "I had a question for Yusuke. Those spells I tossed at you – you could see most of them, right?"

"Yeah," Yusuke confirmed. "It was practically a lightshow near the start of the fight. After awhile though, I could only sort of feel some weak energy blasts."

"So 'Mione? Think you could maybe look up some useful spells that don't come out of my wand as bright beacons that scream 'dodge me'?"

The witch handed over a vial and absently ordered her friend to swallow half of it while her brows furrowed in thought. "I'm not sure. Part of the reason spells glow is because the energy in it is, well, leaking you could say. Like when you heat up a piece of metal, some of the heat energy escaped in a reddish glow. For weaker spells, like the levitation charm and tripping jinx, that doesn't happen, but most curses will light up and there's not much you can do about it."

"What about the Imperius Curse? You can't see that one, and that's a pretty powerful spell."

Hermione pursed her lips. "That's because the spell itself doesn't require a lot of magic. If it weren't for the horrible effects it has, the Imperius Curse would be lauded as a highlight in spell-making history. Instead of using excessive power to force its effect, the curse uses a minimum amount of magic to pinpoint a specific part of the mind and essentially create a link of sorts between the mind of the caster and the victim. The continued effectiveness of the curse then relies on the caster feeding magic and instructions through the link. That's why average wizards can use it, and fighting off the curse requires something as muggle as strength of will, instead of something magical like a counter-curse or antidote. But I suppose you have a point there, in that there are non-visible spells with some rather amazing effects. I'll look into it," she promised.

"How long until he's healed?" Genkai asked.

"I'd give it another hour before the potion finishes its job. And of course, he really shouldn't be doing any more strenuous exercise with that arm for at least the rest of the day," Hermione informed them.

"Geez, that's even faster than you with your Spirit Wave technique, old lady," Yusuke commented to Genkai, who ignored the jibe in favor of looking at Harry who was pulling himself back up to his feet.

"For the rest of the afternoon, try pushing your Spirit Energy outwards into a shield. When I come back, I'll test its ability to defend you from Spirit Energy attacks," she ordered, before taking Yusuke away for more of their own, far more strenuous training.

* * *

><p>Green smoke pulsed around Harry slowly, like a living mass of mist as the wizard attempted to push his Spirit Energy into a shield around him. It was somewhat tricky, since Genkai decided he didn't have the reserves necessary to create a more traditional shield where a concentrated flow of energy was formed into a barrier around him like a glass dome. Instead, Harry thinned out his Spirit Energy from his body, allowing it to 'live' away from his physical body. It used less energy at the cost of being a weaker defense. To compensate, Harry had to be able to manipulate that pulsing mass to thicken in specific areas that are being attacked.<p>

At the moment, the wizard was attempting to estimate the proper degree of strength to defend against attacks of varying power as Genkai stood in front of him, flicking little bursts of her Spirit Energy at the aura. Sometimes Harry thickened the mist too much for a weak attack, which was wasteful and tiring, but when he underestimated, or simply did not accurately predict the trajectory of an attack, a burst would pierce through to hit Harry, who could only grit his teeth at the sting. Any more dramatic a reaction and he would lose control over the barrier completely.

"That's enough," Genkai announced as Harry began to sweat from the exertion of controlling his Spirit Energy. The farther away from him and the more it was disturbed, the faster his Spirit Energy dissipated, draining his body of strength in a completely different way from magical exhaustion. It was a very disturbing feeling.

"We will have to work on getting that stronger, as well as less draining on your reserves," Genkai commented as Harry flopped down to the ground.

"In just a month?" Harry asked skeptically. Even the moon in the night sky above them seemed unconfident, hiding behind a cloud. "Genkai, while I'm grateful for all your help, it seems you're teaching me to stall more than how to win fights."

Genkai huffed at this before replying. "To an extent, that's true. I suppose there's no harm in letting you know why. I'll be blunt. The fifth fighter on Yusuke's team isn't going to be you. Togoro has, requested, that I take that place. As an invited guest, you must be on the team as well, but the rules allow for each team to carry along an alternate – someone who will only need to fight when one of the main fighters has been killed or otherwise incapacitated. I'm training you to survive while you're there. Winning fights is a secondary issue."

"Somehow, I don't think the tournament committee is going to let me get away with just sitting on the bench," Harry commented wryly.

"We'll deal with that when it becomes a problem. If we manage to strengthen your barrier enough, merely being in its presence will have a caustic effect on the health of your opponent. His strength and speed will waver, so as long as you can hold on, you can use magic to finish him off. I'm sure there are plenty of, _spells_, that would work."

Harry nodded. It wasn't really his style, but slowly pressuring his overwhelmingly stronger opponent wasn't an unfamiliar concept to him. The Priori Incantum from fourth year is a prime example. However, something Genkai said confused him.

"You said you're joining the tournament? Does Yusuke know?"

"No," Genkai replied, "and you won't be telling him," she added with a stern look. "I will reveal myself during the tournament when necessary."

Harry scratched his head awkwardly. "No offense, but how are you going to do that? I mean, even if you hide your face, your, err, stature is pretty… unique."

Genkai smirked. "Yes, I know, I'm short. Not to worry. I do actually have a single technique capable of changing my appearance, although it's really just a side effect."

Harry studied his teacher a bit. To be honest, her short height actually opened up a lot of different options for disguises. "I could use magic to help," he offered. "There's something called a glamour charm which can superficially change a person's appearance. Using a technique requires you to constantly harness a certain amount of Energy, right? With a glamour I can make the disguise stay on until either I take it off, or it wears off in about a week."

Genkai seemed to consider it for a moment. She quickly glanced at the moon and hummed thoughtfully. "It's early enough," she decided. "How fast can you run?"

Harry grimaced. "Nowhere near as fast as you. Er, are you going anywhere populated by normal people?"

Genkai shook her head. "Just to the far side of my property. It is all private land with naught but some low-class demons."

Reaching into his pocket where his moleskin pouch was held, Harry withdrew his shrunken broom and restored its size with a wave of his wand. "I can follow on this, then," Harry smiled, hopping onto his ride. "It has a top speed of nearly two-hundred miles per hour – that's enough, right?"

Genkai stared for a moment. "We'll have to see if we can use that in any fights you might get involved in," she muttered, before shaking her head. "Very well, follow me."

And with that, she sprinted off at superhuman speed. Harry immediately pushed off after her, relying more on her glowing aura than his normal sight to track her in the dark night.

They reached their destination in about an hour, Harry thoroughly impressed a human could run for so far, so fast, without breaking a sweat.

"This will do," Genkai stated. "The dimwit shouldn't feel it from this distance," she added with a smirk.

Harry chuckled. The more he saw the teenage boy and the elderly woman interact, the more he could see the underlying affection and respect both held for the other.

Taking in deep breaths, Genkai settled into a wide stance with one foot in front and the other diagonally behind, her hands held near her further hip, positioned as if they were cradling the top and bottom of a large crystal ball. With each exhale, her body glowed brighter, but what made Harry rub his eyes in disbelief was seeing the woman's age rapidly reverse in front of his eyes. Her hair rippled into a silky pink that shone in the moonlight. Her skin smoothed and tightened, emphasizing large brown eyes and a small pointed nose.

"When all the Spirit Energy one has is channeled through the body, the cells can temporarily return to their peak physical condition." A clear, light, and high pitched voice explained from the young woman's mouth. "The height of my physical strength was in my twenties." Slowly, the glow faded, and Genkai's youth followed behind.

"That's pretty neat," Harry squeaked.

Genkai laughed with her scratchier natural voice. "Yes, I imagine it's a bit of a shock to see how I've changed. But this was my original plan. I would keep my face hidden, and when necessary, show my younger form as a disguise."

"Man, Yusuke's going to be so confused when he sees your disguise for the first time," Harry commented. "But, it's interesting how your body shape has generally remained unchanged. If you're willing, I could put some glamours on you to give you that appearance, or even a completely different one. If we change your hair to black or blonde and your eyes blue, that'd really be something, and I'm sure Hermione knows more voice changing charms than I do."

Genkai shook her head. "If you can use your magic to disguise me in my younger appearance so I don't need to constantly channel all my Spirit Energy to maintain the form, I'd be grateful, but nothing else. I have my reasons for wishing to be recognizable."

He wanted to ask, recognizable by whom? For what reasons? And for that matter, why was she participating at all? And at Toguro's request of all people? Yusuke never asked her to join the team – he intimated as much when the news came that Harry was invited. From this, Harry could guess that Genkai was simply not the kind of person who got involved in these kinds of issues. She was the epitome of tough love and letting things proceed as they would, believing that in the long run, what needs to happen is what will happen.

Like when she was selecting for a student with her own mini-tournament. Between Yusuke and Boton, Harry had a pretty good idea what happened. Even though a demon revealed himself to be after her power and death, and Yusuke was clearly outmatched, Genkai did nothing, standing firm by her wish to hand on her power to the strongest and worthiest. Her decision, however, was backed by the belief that a demon who murders for his power and never works to understand them or create his own could never be the strongest or worthiest. There was no need for her to step in.

Would someone like that step in now to shield her student from his latest challenge?

But Harry didn't ask, because if there was something he learned from the war, it was that everyone had a history and a past, and that while powerful old people frustrated and confused you, sometimes you simply had to trust their wisdom.

Harry lightly twirled his wand between his fingertips. "Let's try it then. I think I can manage to recreate what I just saw," he said with a grin. "Such a beauty makes quite an impression."

**A/N: Let me know of any more questions, though I'll be clarifying just a few more things in the next chapter as well about Harry's unique brand of Spirit Awareness.**

**29 reviews 4/30/12~**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: I did have several chapters in backup, including this one, but the more I read over my work, the more boring it seemed, what with the need to repeat stuff exactly like canon, so I guess the long break was partially due to that issue, and partially because I'm a lazy ass. Sorry.**

4.

"Merlin, a group like that is almost blinding," Harry huffed, as he squinted his eyes behind his new glasses.

"Yeah?" Yusuke commented. "You could always switch back to your old glasses. I still don't get how that works, really," he complained as he trudged along through the forest.

"My old glasses have been magically repaired so many times, they're almost like a magically conjured item," Harry explained, following the trail the other boy was leaving behind with his destructive hiking. "All the magic acted like a screen for my vision of Spirit Energy. And no, I really shouldn't switch back. If I do end up fighting, being able to see my opponent's Energy will be really useful. If I don't get used to this, the crowd of audience members will render that advantage null."

"Wait, what do you mean, 'if you end up fighting?'" Yusuke paused and turned around to look at his companion. "I mean, I hate to break it to you, but I think this whole tournament is organized to make sure all five members of a team have to fight matches. More blood and death that way."

Harry sighed. "I'm quite sure Genkai mentioned this to you already, Yusuke. You've fought me once, so you know perfectly well I'm no match for you, right? What my strength comes down to is the unknown properties of my magic, which would be rendered nearly useless after my first match-up. Maybe against low-level demons I'd be fine, or Energy readers since they can't read magic, but otherwise it's simply not worth gambling our victory on my weak fighting prowess."

"You'd've kicked ass in that darkness round of Grandma's tournament," Yusuke pointed out.

Harry chuckled. "Thank you. I imagine that with my Spirit Awareness and ability to contain my own aura as Genkai taught me, I'd probably be able to 'kick arse' in an open field as well. I own an invisibility cloak, after all, and I'm getting quite good at successive apparating."

"I've fought against an opponent with an invisibility cloak before," Yusuke recalled. "Yeah, he would've been a lot harder to get if it weren't for the hallways, 'cause he was too fast for even Kuwabara to see with his Spiritual Awareness. Why can't you do that during the tournament, though?"

Harry scowled. "I'd like to, especially since there's an Energy item equivalent to magical invisibility cloaks. The problem is that a tournament isn't just some place where a pair of fighters clash and whoever emerges alive is the winner. A tournament has rules, which means it has people that need to enforce those rules, which means you can't make yourself undetectable by said rule enforcers. Those same rules may say that any weapons are allowed in the tournament, but it's implied that unless you want to be disqualified by default, you have to limit yourself to visibly following the other rules."

"What a load of crap," Yusuke declared, furrowing his brows as he tried to follow what Harry was saying. "I'd bet they wouldn't care if a team other than the invited guests tried to fight invisible."

"Maybe, maybe not," Harry shrugged. "Regardless, Genkai found someone to join as our team's fifth member and I'll be the alternate. I'm not happy about this, of course; I like to fight my own battles. But at this point, it's more important that I get my wish as the end of the tournament for the committee to keep quiet about my abilities."

"Oh yeah, that thing about a big war slash major feeding frenzy if the information gets out, huh?" Yusuke recalled.

"Exactly."

"So where is this fifth guy, then? I mean, we're heading for the boat to the tournament grounds right now."

Harry looked up towards the moon. Suddenly, a shadow appeared in front of the white orb before a small human figure fell quickly towards them.

It was a young woman with bright pink hair tied in a braid and large brown eyes. Her face was set in an indifferent expression as she examined the pair.

Yusuke gaped. "Geez, I wasn't expecting that. Well, if the old lady says you can fight, I'll bet you're pretty good."

"More than pretty good," Harry added with a sly grin. "In fact, I'd say she's just as strong as Genkai herself."

"Seriously?"

"So you're the dimwit," the woman interrupted, voice like a bell.

"Hey now, there, lady. You –" But the woman was already walking off towards their destination, so Harry calmed Yusuke's ire then pushed him to follow.

Before long, they heard the mutterings of demons boasting of their strength as they neared the designated spot for the ship to pick them up and take them to the tournament.

"Imagine our power when we get that prize!"

"Yeah right! We're going to get that prize!"

"Hah, if you've seen us fight, you wouldn't be so arrogant of your own weak skills!"

"The ship is here mateys," said a rough voice. "Now let's try to get on board without any violence."

A young male voice spoke up in protest – probably Yusuke's classmate Kuwabara, Harry guessed, as the trio walked a little faster.

"Then we'll have to put a mark on their heads and send out a hitman," the voice, probably the ship's captain, retorted at the news that some of the contestants hadn't arrived yet. "Standard rules of the tournament."

"Now, now, that's not necessary," Yusuke quickly spoke up, announcing his presence as they emerged from the forest edge.

At this point, while Yusuke and Kuwabara quickly descended into petty insults as a form of greeting, Harry took a glance around. The feminine looking male with long red hair and green eyes was probably Kurama, the fox demon in a human body. The short male with spike black hair and a white bandage around his forehead was likely Hiei, a fire demon – as Harry could see from his Demon Energy – with a third eye. He was currently in his human form, which was more than Harry could say about the dozens of other demons present. Though it could be simply that they preferred their demon forms, Harry had a hunch that the reality was none of them were born strong enough to have a human form to choose.

Hiei approached the two fighting humans, and when Harry saw his Demon Energy held in tighter as a preparation to attack, he quickly took a step backwards.

A single utterance of Yusuke's name was the boy's only warning before the small demon unsheathed his sword and launched an attack at the teen boy. Yusuke, however, had suffered non-stop training with Genkai the past few months, who was just as fond of surprise attacks. He took a step back almost immediately before the first sword slash arrived, and soon he was sidestepping each one of Hiei's blows by a mere hairsbreadth. The fight was endless, but lasted only a few seconds before Yusuke managed to capture the sword mid-swing with his fingertips reinforced by his Spirit Energy.

"Damn Hiei, is this how you say hello to people now?" Yusuke quipped.

Hiei simply smirked, clearly pleased by the results. "I don't know where you've been all this time, but it seems you've improved your skills a little bit."

"A little bit!" Kuwabara protested, his orange pompadour bouncing lightly as he exclaimed over the amazing speed and agility his teammates demonstrated. "Oh, man, I'd say he improved a lotta bits!"

Kurama chuckled and was quick to reassure Kuwabara of his own improved skills as Hiei asked, "and who are the others?" with a dismissive glance at Harry and the young woman Genkai was disguised as.

"Oh yeah, guys, meet Harry. He was invited too, a few weeks after us. The girl is, uh, you know, I didn't catch your name."

"What! You're making a pretty girl like her fight in a tournament for a bunch of scary demons? Uh-uh, not happening, Urameshi," Kuwabara declared.

Yusuke rolled his eyes. "It's not like we're asking you to fight her, so your stupid honor code should be fine. Besides, Genkai recommended her. You remember Genkai, right? The old hag who could kick your ass any day while still being female?"

"Fine, but I'm not happy about this. And so why's this Harry guy been invited too? He looks kinda wimpy. And why's he wearing a yukata?"

Harry smiled tensely. Really, the kid had no tact. At least now he had confirmation that his robes could pass for slightly eccentric muggle clothing. Hermione didn't have the opportunity to spell any muggle clothing for extra defense. "It's true that I'm not much of a heavy hitter, so I hope you won't mind if I take the position of alternate for the team."

"Alright, alright!" the ship captain growled, annoyed at the delay, before barking at everyone to hurry and board the vessel.

The demons eagerly agreed, and the crowd quickly piled onto the large ship's deck.

The ship was surprisingly modern styled considering the captain's stereotypical 'old pirate' look with an eye patch, a peg leg, a full beard, and a hook replacing his left hand. It was almost the size of a cruise ship, though its barren deck and rusty captain's lookout made it look more like a retired fishing vessel.

Once onboard, the Urameshi team placed themselves by the edge, with Hiei balancing on the railing, Kuwabara and Kurama leaning on the railing beside him, and Genkai standing alertly slightly in front of them all. Yusuke flopped down to the ground in a loose, cross-legged sitting position and yawned. Harry sat beside him and placed a hand on the boy's shoulder.

"You can sleep if you wish. I'm sure you can feel how weak everyone on board is. Even I could take on a few if they decide to attack," Harry murmured into Yusuke's ear.

Yusuke gave a sleepy affirmation before he was out.

"So how exactly did you get involved in this mess, Harry?" Kurama asked pleasantly, as if greeting a fellow classmate in afterschool detention.

"A bit of bad luck," Harry grinned ruefully, before recounting the cover story he and Koenma created last week. "A demon tried to possess me a few months ago, and it awakened my Spiritual Awareness. I've apparently got a rare version of it, and my Spirit Energy also developed some unique properties. I guess after all the trouble with Yusuke and Kuwabara, and no doubt previous Spirit Detectives, the demons are starting to think along the lines of 'nipping problems in the bud,' so to speak. Once my ability was made known to the committee for the tournament, I was invited, likely in the hopes that I be killed before I become a threat."

"Wow, man, that kinda sucks," Kuwabara sympathized. "So, do you not have any fighting abilities and stuff?"

"I can beat any ordinary human in a fight to the death, but I've only received about six weeks of training in using my Spirit Energy against other Energy users. Of course, those six weeks were spent with Genkai, so I'm no pushover. If there ever comes a time when you'll need an alternate, I can guarantee a good fight."

Kuwabara seemed skeptical, and Hiei never stopped looking at the wizard like he was some sort of bug, but at that point the captain started an announcement with a microphone from his place on the captain's deck.

"Now there's still quite a bit of time before our ship finds its way to the harbor," he informed them. "So until then, we'll be holding the preliminaries aboard my trusty ship. Only one team of you all will receive the chance to fight on dry land."

Demons immediately began to protest at this, but they were quickly shut up when the entire ship began to rumble. The middle third of the boat split in half and slowly began to move apart. From the uncovered pit a large circle stage rose up, held above the ship's passengers' heads by a large robotic support beam.

"All teams bring out your strongest men to fight in a battle royale! And whoever comes out alive gets his team a ticket to fight on Hanging Neck Island!"

At the idea of a battle royale, the demons quickly changed their tune, eager for blood and violence.

Several made their opinions loudly known about how they intended to first rip Yusuke to shreds before starting on each other.

Kuwabara, who had just started boasting about how he was looking forward to the big 'beat-down,' soon appeared a little queasy at a few of the more gruesome images the demons were evoking with their trash talk.

"Ahaha, well, I guess this kind of fight really should be part of the group leader's responsibilities. Go get'em, Urameshi!"

But Yusuke, of course, did not respond.

"He's asleep, Kuwabara," Harry informed, "and don't bother waking him. He needs time to recuperate from his training. I'll go," he offered, standing up and lightly patting down his robes. "I'm sure you'll feel better with a demonstration of my abilities, right?"

"I wouldn't mind a look at hers either," Hiei drawled with a glance at Genkai, "but I suppose just you will do for now. If you fail, we can simply kill everyone else on board and no one will be able to deny that we won the preliminaries."

Kuwabara squinted at the small demon. "You didn't have too many friends growing up, did you?"

"Harry," Genkai called out as the wizard walked towards the stage. The others in the team quickly looked in her direction. That was the first word she'd spoken since they met her, and they still didn't even know her name.

Harry turned his head back and gave Genkai a reassuring grin. "Don't stop me," he requested. "It's bad enough you pushed me off to be a bench player when I'm the invited guest. I have to earn at least one win, and you know perfectly well this fight is as ideal as its going to get when paired up against the techniques I've learned. I can even pull out all the stops, since it's not like I have to hide any aces from the watching demons who won't even be participating in the main event, let alone as our opponents."

Genkai reluctantly nodded in assent and Harry joined the ten demons on the arena, choosing to stand near an edge with all the demons on one side to minimize potential attacks from behind. From his pocket, he retrieved a vial and downed the potion before casting the spell portion of his physical defense ward. After, he began to push his aura to pulse around him about a meter in radius. The misty green Spirit Energy drew a lot of interested glances, but most demons dismissed the danger of it as it seemed thin and easy to bypass.

"Attack!" the captain screamed.

With a raucous roar, all the demons leapt towards Harry, intent on dealing with the inferior human first.

"_Impedimenta!_" Harry quickly incanted, throwing several Impediment hexes and tripping jinxes at the leading attackers. He grinned viciously when each one hit their target dead on.

Invisible spells weren't only harder to dodge, they were harder to aim. If he missed, he had no way of telling by how much to correct himself with the next attack, so he spent a large chunk of his time the past weeks doing target practice with Yusuke. Nowadays, he could hit a sitting apple from six meters away. As for hitting Yusuke, well, if the boy was blindfolded and entirely on the defensive, Harry had a perfect hit rate from four meters away. A Yusuke with vision quickly picked up the ability to react to where Harry's wand was pointed and dodge that way.

The demons had no such understanding, and the ones trailing behind the felled leaders didn't react in time to avoid the falling victims, creating pile-ups with a domino effect, each fallen demon bringing down more. Caught in a bad position, none were able to react when Harry cast an overpowered Aguamenti, followed by a Glacius to trap them to the ground. After that, it was merely a matter of using stunning spells to incapacitate as many as possible before they broke free of the ice.

Half a dozen were put out of the fight before the first demon broke free. A large horned creature, the demon charged forward with his green-colored fist raised high in a clear attempt to punch Harry in the head. A quick analysis of the demon's energy showed there was no intention of making a feint, so Harry rapidly thickened his Spirit Energy barrier in the appropriate area before shooting an Impediment Jinx to slow the attacker's speed.

In slow motion, the fist passed through the green barrier with seemingly little resistance except for the curious sluggishness of the demon's entire body, but to Harry and the demon, a sizzling could just barely be heard.

Every inch of skin that passed through the green mist was fizzing with a disgusting melting look, as if an acid was eating away at the arm. The demon froze in pain and shock at the sight, allowing Harry to aim a stunning spell point blank at his forehead.

The danger past, Harry thinned his barrier once more, breathing heavily. He wouldn't be able to do that again for awhile if he wanted to keep up this fight for much longer.

The effect of his barrier when it was thin was negligible. After demonstrating its full power once, he kept up the appearance of still having a shield mostly for show, as a bluff to stall further attempts at close combat.

A bluff that seemed to be paying off. The scattered remaining demons didn't try coming nearer, and instead paced in front of the wizard while snarling, almost foaming at their mouths like rabid animals.

Finally, one seemed lose patience and bounded forward, the other quickly following suit as they didn't wish to miss out their chance to be the one to take out the human.

Quickly tugging a charm off a necklace beneath his robe collar, Harry snapped out an Enlargement Charm. Jumping onto his broom, the wizard shot up above their heads, and, aiming carefully at the first demon to skid to a halt in surprise, firmly incanted, "Imperio," and ordered him to attack the others.

At this 'betrayal,' the other demons fought back, and soon forgot their original prey in favor of killing each other. The last demon standing was easily taken out by another stunning spell from above, and Harry lightly leapt off from his broom onto the stage of unconscious and dead demons, the clear winner of the battle royale.

Shrinking his broom to put into his pocket, he grimly walked down the stairs from the arena to his team as the captain announced the victory to 'the human.' There was a certain thrill to winning a fight like that, but he didn't enjoy the slaughter towards the finish. In the end, Harry considered fighting as a means to an end, rather than an enjoyable activity in its own right as Yusuke often seemed to think during his spars with the demons in Genkai's dark forest.

"Holy crap," Kuwabara exclaimed as Harry returned. "I can see why the demons want you dead…"

"That's nothing," Harry smirked as he sat back down next to Yusuke and then gestured towards Genkai. "Kai would've blown them all away in less than ten seconds."

"Really?"

"You're very versatile," Kuruma observed. "To utilize water, ice, acid, flight, object manipulation, mental suggestion, and instantaneous loss of consciousness all in the space of ten minutes is extraordinary. Is that a result of your unique Spiritual Awareness?"

"Yeah," Harry fibbed, hiding his wince at Kurama's long list – it did seem a bit too much now – and offering the lie prepared to explain away his magical abilities. "I'm much better at seeing the nuances of Energy, and so I'm able to use my own to imitate all sorts of attacks, rather than specialize in just one type. None of the attacks are devastating, but it keeps me unpredictable."

"Boys," Genkai demanded firmly, pointing over Kuwabara's shoulder, alerting the team to the demons who were eyeing them eagerly.

"Who cares about the rules?" they scoffed.

"There's only one way to find out who's the strongest team on this ship."

"Yeah, let's just kill them all right here, right now."

"I think they stole my idea," Hiei said in a very insulted tone. "We'll have to make them pay dearly for that."

Kurama withdrew a rose from his hair and smirked. "Of course."

Genkai, Kurama, and Hiei split off to deal with their enemies more efficiently, leaving Kuwabara to deal with the nearby group. Concentrating his Spirit Energy into his hands, the human formed a long yellow rod he wielded like a sword to cut up those who attacked him.

Kurama channeled his Demon Energy into the rose, and to Harry's surprise, the flower grew into a long whip lined with thorns. Circling it over his head like a lasso, Kurama formed a wheel that sliced through all the demons in its range.

Hiei simply used his quick speed and swordsmanship to cut down demon after demon, and Genkai similarly didn't bother using Energy attacks, choosing instead to leap on top of demons' heads and shoulders to knock them out with sharp blows to critical points along their spinal cords.

Throughout the commotion, Yusuke slept on without care, and the one demon that tried to attack the unconscious boy was blasted back with a Reducto from a highly cranky wizard. Low Spirit Energy reserves made Harry irritable.

"So I guess that's it, then," Kuwabara announced proudly when he tossed the last demon overboard. "And hey, look, you can the island." He pointed ahead of the ship where an island could be seen with two strangely shaped mountains, one of which curved inwards at the top, perfect for hanging a thick noose to execute a giant. "This is going to be wild, you guys!"

Harry wasn't sure how he felt about this incredibly naïve sentiment.

"Wow, I've never seen this much rich stuff in my whole life."

While Harry couldn't say the same, what with experiencing Hogwarts and a brief visit to Malfoy Manor, he could understand Kuwabara's shock. This seemed a bit overboard for guests invited to die. Perhaps they merely felt pity for the pathetic human team that would be slaughtered in the next few days.

'This is their last chance to enjoy life,' they likely thought, those bloody posh bastards.

Kuwabara dropped a sleeping Yusuke on a shiny leather couch and the rest of the team took their seats around the glass coffee table that gleamed under the light of a gold and crystal chandelier.

The door was knocked on to announce the presence of room service. A thin man in a waiter uniform walked in and placed six cups of coffee on the table, 'compliments of the hotel.'

As the man left, a child walked in through the open door before it closed shut behind him. If it weren't for Harry's Spirit Awareness, he might not have noticed the small being, but his burnt orange Demon Energy was eye-catching, despite his trained ability to hide it.

Genkai had explained that Harry's Spirit Awareness was unique in the _how_ he could see Spirit Energy. Other Spiritually Aware people read Energy waves as they emitted from a human, demon, object, or attack. Harry could do that too, feeling varying sensations like cold chills or oily textures on his skin in the presence of maliciously intended energy. However, his body also subconsciously set aside some of his own Spirit Energy for emitting from his body – the reason behind his low reserves – and his eyes read the return signals like a bat used echolocation with sound waves and its ears. Thus, even though this demon held in his Energy to hide his presence, it was useless against Harry.

Against the others, however… Well, Kuwabara was currently worrying about the possibility that the coffee cups were poisoned while Kurama and Hiei were trying to reassure him that no one would try something like that since they were brought all the way here to be violently murdered in front of a rabid crowd, not quietly assassinated by poison in their own room.

Genkai noticed – the demon wasn't invisible, after all, just because he stopped emitting Energy. But she merely gave the demon a dismissive side-glance, perhaps deciding he posed no danger.

Yusuke slept on.

As they all sat down to enjoy their drinks – though Kuwabara chose to stick with a can of vending machine coffee he brought with him, a pair of small yo-yos crept around the sofa to the coffee table to grab one of the remaining coffee cups.

"That's very rude," Harry spoke up, unwilling to let the small demon continue hiding. He had a human form, which was worrying in terms of his power level, and the wizard would feel more at ease if the rest of the team knew of the intruder's presence.

"What's rude?" Kuwabara asked, before turning in shock when an unfamiliar voice spoke next.

"Oh rats, guess I was caught, huh?" the child pouted, but the coffee cup was already in his hands, and he slurped at it mischievously. His large red and yellow striped cap pulled sideways over his messy brown hair and the three pink stars tattooed beneath his left eye added to his 'rebel' look. Well, as 'rebel' as an eight year old could look. Perhaps 'bratty' was a better word.

"The invited guests sure are lucky they don't have to listen to the boring opening ceremony stuff and meetings about the rules. You just have to show up and fight! Guess it doesn't matter that you learn the special finals rules and prizes since you'll be dead soon."

Yeah, a real brat.

"I'm Rinku, by the way, of the Rokuyukai team you're fighting tomorrow," he said from his position on their cabinet. Finishing the coffee, he placed it sideways in front of him, and then began to balance his entire body with his index fingers pointed on the cup's handle. "You know, I came looking because somebody told me the guests this year were special so I got excited, but you don't look that special to me. Maybe I'll even beat you all by myself."

"Don't you think you're talking too much?" The voice was deep and disdainful.

The new comer was leaning against the wall just inside the closed door. He was pale skinned with light blond hair in a tall crew cut. His tight t-shirt emphasized his defined musculature, but what caught Harry's eye was his Energy signature. As soon as he stopped hiding his presence, his acid yellow-green Demon Energy that roiled like lava began to flicker from his aura like yellow tongues of fire. It was quite obvious what kind of attacks he specialized in.

Rinku leapt off the cabinet to stand in front of the fire demon, giggling all the while. "Hey there, Zeru," he greeted with a grin. "I was just saying howdy-do to our enemies."

The demon, Zeru, ignored Rinku's explanation and opened the door to leave. For a moment, he paused in the doorway to speak at them over his shoulder. "Enjoy your last night with the living. Let's just say tomorrow will find you strongly resembling your coffee cup."

A blade of energy whipped out from behind the demon towards one of the remaining cups on the table. The amount of energy used wasn't nearly enough to do anything but tip the object, but the speed and high temperature of the blade was sufficient to slice through the delicate porcelain, the contents of the destroyed cup spilling over the untouched saucer.

Harry's breathe hitched. This demon had power, yes, but also a fine-tuned control over his abilities. Whoever faced him tomorrow would have his work cut out for them.

With this parting demonstration, the 'representatives' of their opponents tomorrow left without another word, the door swinging silently shut in their wake.

**A/N: I enjoy writing Yu Yu Hakusho from Harry's perspective. It let's me write out all my funky theories about magic and Spirit Energy I've developed over the years in the guise of providing strangers with entertainment! Hahaha!**

**Thank you to everyone who reviewed or alerted! It's the continuing interest in all my stories that keeps me coming back :)**

**44 reviews as of today, 7/25/12**

**(I'm not too sure about in Japan, but in China, 4 is an unlucky number, and 44 even more so! Then add that to the fact that this is the 4th chapter of my 4th crossover fic... damn. If I was feeling any more superstitious, I'd write a character death scene into this chapter to use up the bad luck!)**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: One of my old backup chapters. I used to just be a retelling of the first two fights with minor changes to accommodate Harry's presence/point of view, but I added a few original scenes to make it less boring, hopefully.**

5.

"Would you like me to fix that?" Harry asked, as Hiei examined one half of the split cup still sitting on the coffee table with a blank expression. He wasn't expecting a positive response, since he highly doubted that the demon was fiddling with the object out of concern for its broken state. Rather, Hiei was the only one not in bed, and Harry was hoping for some conversation.

Unfortunately, Hiei merely responded with a dark glare before returning his eyes to trace the edge created by Zeru's energy blade.

Harry sighed. He was hoping for at least a verbal huff of dismissal, if not an outright "no," or maybe an insult to his intelligence. Maybe Hiei knew what he wanted and that's why he only glared? But then, surely he would've just ignored him completely and not even given the glare…

"Shut. Up," Hiei hissed, unconsciously wrapping his fingers around the arm of his chair in his irritation. "Your thoughts are _absurd_."

Harry blinked, then scowled. "Maybe you should stay out of my head," he snapped back. "Bloody telepath. Maybe I should start learning Occlumency again," he muttered to himself.

"Hn," Hiei huffed in return, before returning his focus to the cup.

Harry, in turn, stared at Hiei. In some ways, Harry was reminded of Snape whenever Yusuke told stories about the diminutive demon. It was kind of silly, because Snape was a very tall man whose robes billowed behind him, while Hiei was a very short demon who's cloak – when he wore one – snapped sharply with his quick footwork. The wizard's hair was also always greasy and lank, unlike Hiei's gravity defying spikes, and Snape's nose always seemed to overwhelm his face while Hiei's nose could almost be considered cute. And of course, Hiei wasn't a double agent for anything and he and Yusuke actually _liked_ each other.

But they were both dark, brooding, unsociable types with more layers than an onion; people who seemed ruthless at first but turn out to actually have honor; people who hold high expectations for those around them but higher still for themselves; people who – and Harry sighed as he recalled what Yusuke had told him about Hiei's relationship with his sister, Yukina – had someone precious they worked to protect even if said person remained ignorant of it. Both Snape and Hiei considered the act of helping their allies to be more akin to "babysitting" than fighting side-by-side as equals, and they both – Harry scowled again – had the ability to enter another's mind.

The similarities _should_ worry Harry. For all that he understood now that Snape had been an amazingly strong individual, he didn't think he'd ever have gotten along with the man even had he survived from his ordeal back in the Shrieking Shack. The old Potions Professor never saw him as anything more than a foolish, ignorant child. Still, Hiei doesn't appear to have reached his race's age of maturity, and he and Yusuke got along well enough, so maybe Harry still had some hope. It would be really awkward spending the entire tournament as an outsider.

"Ow!" Harry exclaimed when he was only able to partially dodge the cup half that was flung at his head.

"We are not here make _friends,_" Hiei sneered, "and I am most certainly not going do any such thing with an impossible weakling like you. You may have fooled the buffoon and the low-class demons back on that ship with your tricks and vague stories, but you cannot fool the Jagan. Your only Energy attack during the entire fight was the one time you thickened your green aura on an attacking arm, and that trick alone drained nearly half your reserves. I don't know how you managed those other cheap tricks you utilized the rest of the time, but I for one am very much content to leave you as an alternate to never step foot in the arena. If you want someone with which to have friendly _chat,_" Hiei spat the word like a curse, "I suggest you try Kurama."

"You just want Kurama to figure me out so he can tell you," Harry accused, having already been forewarned of the fox's silver tongue.

"Don't be ridiculous," Hiei retorted shortly.

"Well, you're certainly not going to find out by reading my thoughts if you don't spend gobs of time with me," Harry cheerily informed the ill-tempered demon. Telepathy and Legilimency were actually two distinctly different things. Snape could access his mind as a whole. On the one hand, there were no clear "words" to read, per se, but a skilled practitioner like his old professor was fully capable of extracting almost any information he desired to. Hiei could only access his conscious, worded thoughts. There was no ambiguity, but the information he had access to was limited. Since Harry certainly wasn't going to sit next to silent Hiei and ramble an explanation for his magic clearly and precisely in his head, telepathy wasn't nearly as useful in this situation as one might initially believe.

Harry stretched with a yawn. "Never mind all that for now," he ended up saying dismissively, lazily waving his wand to repair the shattered cup half which landed on the other side of the room before summoning it to his hand. "Don't stay up too long," the wizard said in parting as he lightly tossed the cup half back at the fire demon before heading off to bed.

* * *

><p>"Let the Dark Tournament, begin!"<p>

Under the pink, smoky fireworks that exploded in the pale blue sky, the announcer, Koto, yelled enthusiastically into her microphone. She was a cat demon, or maybe a fox demon, Harry believed, since she had the ears, a bushy tail, fluffy brown hair, whiskers, and slit pupils in her large green eyes.

The crowd of low class demons roared and cheered in approval of their entertainment going underway. The whole place was designed like a baseball stadium, a circle of raised seats surrounding a grassy arena. A tall wall separated the watches from the participators, and in the middle of the grass circle was a large, round, raised stage that looked very similar to the one back on the ship.

Harry blocked out the noise as best he could, choosing to concentrate more on the state of his team than the blood-thirst of their audience. In the Tri-Wizard Tournament, the watchers at least had the sense to feel a bit of sympathetic horror and fear when the Champions faced a particularly life-threatening task. It wouldn't be the same here.

Kuwabara was once more lugging Yusuke along over his shoulder, the other boy having yet to wake up from his slumber since the boat ride yesterday evening, and grumbling a bit over it. Harry wondered if Yusuke would even wake up in time to take on a challenger. Though, if worst came to worst, he could always use magic to shock him back to consciousness.

Kurama was looking plenty calm and serene, though his eyebrows were slightly tense with anticipation. Hiei too was looking unworried, though far more irritated and disdainful. That was probably his default expression, Harry decided, and the wizard was curious what kind of thoughts were running through the mind behind those scowling eyes. He recalled last night when the fire demon had examined the coffee cup Zeru split with carefully concealed interest when not distracted by Harry. It made him wonder what Hiei thought about it. To be honest, Harry only knew Hiei was a fire demon due to his unique Spirit Awareness. By the stories he'd heard from Yusuke, the small demon didn't use his fire power in a fight, preferring his sword. Perhaps today he'll try something different?

As for Genkai, she was looking just as delicately beautiful as yesterday, and her eyes just as indifferent to the current situation.

Harry wished he could say the same. He was quite nervous about what might happen today, and questions flew through his head as the team lifted themselves onto the round stage in the middle of the arena, their demon opponents doing the same on the other side. Would he have to fight? How strong were their opponents? If he saw anyone on his team about to die, would he be able to restrain himself from interfering? Genkai had already warned him that any rule breaking would result in their disqualification and assassination, but if Yusuke went up there onto the fighting platform and looked like he'd be decapitated? Maybe he'd take his chances with the hitmen.

"Nervous, Harry?"

Harry gave Kurama a tight smile that probably wasn't very reassuring. "Not to worry," he said, "I always get jitters before a big event," he explained, thinking back to his first Quidditch match and the first task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament.

"Hmph, pathetic," Hiei sneered. "You needn't worry so much. Yusuke and I are all this team needs to win the tournament. Our current opponents are certainly no exception."

"Don't get ahead of yourself," Kuwabara protested, pointing a finger in Hiei's face. "I'll be winning a lot of fights, too, you know. In fact, if that annoying kid from yesterday decides to fight, he's mine, okay? The brat make me so mad, and I'm gonna teach him a lesson."

Before Hiei could reply with an insulting retort, Koto yelled into her microphone. "Would the team leaders please report to the center of the ring so we can decide how the first match will be fought?"

Kuwabara turned towards the announcer, startled. "Hey, wait a minute, Urameshi's still asleep. What do we do?" he asked the rest of his team.

The others looked at each other with amusement. This was supposedly the time when the team leaders presented themselves, not only to the audience, but to each other, to measure up the opponents' strength and present a strong front. Trust Yusuke to miss it all together because none of them could wake him from his peaceful slumber.

"Mm," said boy began to mumble, sleep-talking from his place on Kuwabara's shoulders, "I don't want to go to school today, Mom. Just let Kuwabara be the leader of the events for me…"

"Well, if that's not a transfer of power, I don't know what is!" Kuwabara grinned, excited to take the important leadership position. He set his fellow schoolmate down on the floor before walking to meet Zeru in the center with Koto.

"Poor fool," Hiei drawled.

Harry stifled a snicker. Kuwabara seemed to be the most naïve on the team, so perhaps it wasn't so strange that he clashed with Hiei, who was the most cynical. Still, taking on the leadership position at this point did little harm. Everyone knew already that the star of the team was Yusuke Urameshi, and Kuwabara being the human in the center of the platform did nothing to change that fact.

Between glares and gritted teeth, Kuwabara and Zeru arrive in a roundabout manner to an agreement for one-on-one matches. The first team to achieve three victories would advance to the next round. The whole exchange was remarkably free of any attempts at violence, until Kuwabara turned to leave.

A sharp glare at Yusuke's body sprawled on the ground and a sudden flaring of his aura were the only warning signs before a bonfire bathed Zeru's body.

"His Demon Energy just shot through the roof," Kuwabara observed breathlessly to the rest of the group.

"A demon of his class with the power of fire," Kuruma contributed. "Hiei, we had better be careful with this one," he warned.

Harry was pretty certain Hiei already knew and was currently a little more worried about what Zeru was planning to do to Yusuke. The wizard stood a little closer to the boy. It was unnecessary, he knew. Yusuke would surely wake if he was truly in any danger, and it wasn't like he'd be any match for Zeru in a true fight. Genkai probably had the best chance, but she just stood there, hands clasped behind her back, staring blankly at the flaming demon, utterly unimpressed.

Kuwabara grabbed Yusuke by the collar and started shouting for him to wake up when a wall of fire sped towards their team like a train. It circled once around them like a fence to pen in livestock, mere inches from burning their clothes off their bodies, before the flames left the ring to collide with a section of the stadium and dozens of lower class apparitions were consumed by the fire.

When the screams of the dying demons faded, the rest of the audience members were silent as thestrals. Zeru gave one last look at Yusuke, who continued to sleep on, before scoffing and leading his team off the platform.

"Well, the flames are out," the announcer girl stated with a halfhearted chuckle as she got back on the stage, having thrown herself off to escape the flames mere seconds ago. "I notice everyone is pretty quiet after that outburst, but remember, that's half the fun!"

She flicked her bushy tail and raised a hand in the air for attention. "Now send out your first fighters, teams."

Rinku, the bratty demon from yesterday, stepped up the plate. Kuwabara eagerly made good on his word and went back on stage, leaving Yusuke to sleep on the grass.

"Harry!"

Harry turned and blinked in surprise when he saw Hermione and Ron standing in the audience section, right behind the wall that separated the watchers from the fighters.

"Hey there," Harry grinned, jogging over to get closer. "What are you two doing here? It's dangerous!"

His two best friends gave him the stink-eye. "That has to be the stupidest reason for us to not be here, Harry!" Hermione scolded. She pushed herself up onto the top edge of the wall, carefully swinging her legs over to the other side and slowly sliding off. Ron simply jumped down with a grunt, and the two boys lent a hand in softening Hermione's landing.

Once they were all together again, Hermione dragged them back into the corridor the Urameshi team used to enter the arena and warded a small corner from eavesdroppers.

"So how've you been, mate?" Ron asked as they all sat down. "Gotta say, I wasn't expecting to learn about a whole new dimension with freakish looking creatures like those demons so soon after You-Know-Who."

Harry gave a dry chuckle. "Would you ever expect anything like that? I wish you still didn't know, to be honest, 'cause now that you do, those demons are probably going to decide that you smell like good eating."

Ron punched him lightly on the arm. "You may keep getting yourself into these stupid tournaments, Harry, but that doesn't mean we can't support you, you know."

"That's right, Harry. Ron and I can take care of ourselves," Hermione stated firmly. "In fact, I've recently found a great ward that should take care of the problem entirely. You remember, of course, how Voldemort used his own name as a taboo in order to track down the resistance, right?"

Ron and Harry nodded grimly, Harry especially upset as he remembered his own recklessness that had gotten them captured when he angrily spit out the name of his parents' murderer during an argument.

"At first I didn't think much of it. After all, he could have cursed any word, and there didn't have to be any significance in the fact that it was his chosen name since it was just convenient that no one would say it but his most dangerous enemies. But then Harry told me Koenma explained how the wizards of old cursed the demons and used _ignorance_ as the sleeping trigger. That got me thinking about what other spells and wards that could use another person's mental state against them. I finally found what I was looking for in an old text about assassination magic throughout history."

Ron and Harry stared at her in shock. While it was true Hermione researched the obscure, neither of them ever expected her to be interested in something like the history of assassination magic. It was entirely too cool a topic.

Hermione blushed lightly under the gaze. "Oh hush, you two," she said, disregarding the fact that they had yet to say anything about her new tastes. "Anyway, there's a specific personal ward from a few centuries ago that used to allow people to sneak into well guarded buildings. The short of it is this: if a person doesn't know the name of whoever is under the ward, he cannot see, hear, or smell him. Unfortunately, the idea of 'name' is categorized very loosely. A fake alias still counts as a name, as do official titles that you uniquely respond to, such a Minister of Magic, or, well, Spirit Detective, too, I think. It also breaks if the warded person does something too drastically attention grabbing, like yelling during prayer in a quiet church, or murdering in front of an audience. There were several cases where the ward failed just because someone was unexpectedly privy to an assassin's code name or right after a messy kill and the assassin had to escape several vengeful vassals of a powerful lord. In fact," Hermione continued enthusiastically, when Harry finally interrupted.

"So I'm guessing you and Ron are using that spell, then?"

"Exactly," Hermione beamed. "It took awhile to find the actual casting of the ward, but it should work perfectly. After all, no one from the demon world should have heard of us. You'll have to tell Yusuke not to reveal my name once he wakes up, same goes for you, and we'll have to keep our communications discrete to keep from accidently breaking the ward, but I don't think we'll have many problems."

"Discrete, right. I suppose that's why you yelled out my name in the middle of a crowd of demons so that I could talk to midair like a lunatic?" Harry asked dryly.

Hermione blushed. "Yes, well, at least we know it worked when no one commented on us sneaking into the fighting grounds. And it was noisy enough that us yelling your name wouldn't stand out much."

"Not to mention, it would've been worse if you stuck around to watch the fight," Ron said in their defense. "Let's face it, Harry, mate. You barely know anybody on that team of yours, but they're still your teammates now and you're the kind of person who considers that very important. If a demon was about to kill anybody on your team just a meter or so in front of you, you'd step in without a bloody care about the rules; so Hermione thought it'd be safest if we kept you distracted during most of the fighting."

Harry scowled. "It's a bit of a moot point about those hit men if we die in this tournament anyway!"

"Harry James P-"

Harry quickly shoved a hand over her mouth, shushing her furiously. If anyone in this tournament was even remotely familiar with the Wizarding World, like that squib on the tournament committee, his name would be far too dangerous a piece of information to yell out loud, even with the wards.

Hermione huffed and pushed aside the hand. "Harry Robinson," she corrected herself, before continuing the lecture. "You listen to me now and you listen well! I'm not going to bother reemphasizing the danger to the Wizarding World if you lose – you're here because you know that. What your problem is, is that you can't accept the fact that sometimes you have to let other people do what they have to do too! You think it was easy letting you walk to your death?" she asked, her voice trembling slightly. "But in the end, dying for the cause was _your_ choice, and Ron and I hadn't any right to interfere when we didn't have any alternative solutions to offer. Well now it's your turn to respect other people's choices. Those boys are fighting not only for their lives but also to protect their loved ones. At the very least, if they die fighting here, their family and friends will be safe from retribution. You do not have the right to take that peace of mind away from them!"

By this point, Hermione had stood up and was looking furiously down her nose at Harry, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. Ron stood up and awkwardly grabbed her hand, lacing their fingers together and squeezing tight to comfort her.

Harry stared for a moment. Then he too stood up and pulled Hermione into a tight hug. "I'm alive," he reminded her in a whisper, "and you're right, of course. Our clever Hermione is always right," he teased gently. "I'll be a good team member," he promised, "and let the others do what they must, alright?"

Hermione nodded silently, and the trio stood there together for a few moments.

"Robinson?" Ron asked eventually, breaking the silence. "Why Robinson?"

Harry chuckled. "Do you know any Robinsons? Or any reason to connect Robinson with me?"

"Er, no?"

"Exactly," Harry grinned.

"Oh."

The trio stood together in renewed silence, until broken, this time, by Hermione.

"Harry." She reached into her pocket and withdrew a rather familiar ring. "When Ron and I were cleaning up the Quidditch Pitch a few days ago, a centaur came and delivered this to us."

"Bloody confusing bloke he was," Ron added.

"Yes, well, he rambled something about how the stone's presence in the forest was clouding their readings of the stars or some other such divination nonsense, but, well, I do think you should take it, Harry," Hermione said slowly, pressing the ring into Harry's hand as the wizard stood tensely, silently, before her. "With this new situation you're in – well, maybe a stronger connection with the dead might be helpful at some point."

* * *

><p>"Eight! Nine!" Harry walked back into the arena to the sound of Koto counting down someone's time. He had managed to convince Hermione and Ron to return home. Wizarding Britain still needed wands for the recovery process after the war, and there was very little they could do to help Harry in the situation now. They promised to stay in contact, Hermione especially as she was still researching for useful spells, and porkeyed back to Hogwarts.<p>

"Ten!" On the platform, Rinku was using most of his Demon Energy to nurse a wound on his stomach. The rest was directed at Kuwabara who was outside the ring, struggling to free himself from the yo-yo strings Rinku was manipulating to hold him tight. As the last count resounded through the stadium, the strings were released, and Kuwara toppled over in shock.

"And Rinku's the winner!" the announcer girl declared, gesturing to the large screen that displayed pictures of Kuwabara and Rinku. "The Rokuyukai team gets a point!" An 'O' was added under the Rokuyukai team name and an 'X' under the Urameshi team name. Then the photos dimmed and faded away to make room for the next pair of fighters.

"No, no, nonono!" Kuwabara protested, shrugging off the limp strings from his body and clambering back up onto the platform. "Hold it, jerks! That wasn't a fair move! Let's go," he challenged, a fist raised in anger.

Rinku looked at him fearfully, clearly having had enough. Regardless of his win, it seemed Kuwabara did something to make quite an impression on his opponent. "What? You run on batteries or something?" he demanded weakly.

Harry sniggered. Ok, yeah, an overly stubborn enemy who just won't stay down can certainly wear on a person, and apparently on demons too.

"I beat you! Just please go away!" he insisted, the demon looking just as vulnerable as his young appearance intimated. But Kuwabara would have none of that. He demanded that Rinku meet him at the back of the hotel when the round was over, prompting yet another demand to just 'Go away' as Rinku turned and fled the ring.

"Interesting," Kurama commented. "It's rare that both fighters are still alive at the end of a fight in this tournament."

"I assure you that won't happen in any of my fights," Hiei responded coldly.

Kuwabara returned, grumbling as he jumped off the stage onto the grass and stomped towards the rest of the team. On the other side, another demon stepped up to fight. This being had indigo skin, navy blue hair, and wore a dark, mossy green trench coat over black baggy pants tucked into black boots.

Koto eagerly observed aloud the demon's initiative, before glancing over towards the Urameshi team.

"Please," Kurama smiled softly. "I'll handle this one," he stated, walking forward.

The game screen updated, revealing Kurama's opponent to be named Roto.

"Kurama," Hiei called out. "Considering the stakes and our current disadvantaged situation, we cannot afford a loss. Don't leave the ring while he's still alive."

"Naturally," Kurama responded, his eyes blank of any emotion.

The fight began when Roto grew a blade from the back of his right hand and quickly began to attack with quick slashes at Kurama. The fox demon dodged them all with his eyes closed, clearly the superior fighter of the two.

"What a joke, he's no match for Kurama at all" Hiei scoffed, and then turned around. "What are you doing here?"

Leaping into the arena similarly to how Hermione and Ron joined Harry was Boton, wearing an embroidered orange kimono.

"Hello, boys!" she greeted cheerily. "I'm here, so let's whip this team into shape!"

"Hey, what are you doing here?" Kuwabara asked.

"Leave, before you hurt yourself," Hiei sneered.

"Well!" Boton huffed. "That's a jolly thing to say to someone who's going to help you win!"

"Eh?" Kuwabara gaped. "Don't tell me you're an alternate fighter too!"

Boton giggled. "No silly." Grabbing the ends of her kimono, she whipped the outfit off to reveal a yellow button-down shirt and slacks. "In addition to Spirit Detective assistant and pilot of the River Styx, I'm also a licensed trainer," she announced.

Harry looked at her skeptically. For a licensed trainer, she seemed rather oblivious to the fact that it was a bit late in the game to be 'whipping the team into shape.' She didn't seriously think she could raise their power levels now when the fighting has already started, did she? At this point, a healer or strategist would be far more useful so that each individual's current power could be used to their full potential.

"I'll be looking out for you all and making sure you're all in tip-top shape for fighting." That said, she walked right up to Yusuke who was sleeping next to the platform, grabbed him by the collar, and smacked him a few times. "Spirit World to Yusuke!" she yelled. "Wake up! Come on now!"

"Hey!" Harry protested. "Stop that."

"Yes, really, don't bother," Hiei drawled. "The boy's determined to sleep on."

"Ohh," Boton grumbled. "Well, at least I'll get him out of the way," she compromised, dragging the teen by the ankles to the edges of the grassy field.

The team returned their attention to the fight.

"You know," Kuwabara wondered aloud. "That rose whip of Kurama's must be ten feet long. Where's he stash it? All the ways I can think of sound kinda painful."

Hiei gave the boy an incredulous look. "Kurama simply carries a normal rose. By manipulating it with his Demon Energy it is transformed into a whip. Even weeds can turn into a deadly weapon for Kurama," he informed Kuwabara, a hint of admiration in his voice.

At this point, it was clear Kurama was tired of the fight and his opponent's poor skills. He sprinted sharply at Roto and easily maneuvered his way behind the demon, a hand raised to deal a killing blow at the exposed neck when the unexpected happened. Kurama, for some unknown reason, froze in midair and only just barely dodged Roto's blade when the demon blindly sliced his hand backwards.

As Kurama quickly made distance, a trickle of blood welled up from a cut across his cheek.

"Hey, what happened?" Kuwabara glanced between Kurama and Hiei. "You said no match!"

But Hiei was just as shocked at this turn of events and didn't respond.

The audience was thrilled. Suddenly, they stopped booing Roto and cheered him on, begging for more blood from the 'traitor.'

For a few moments, they didn't attack each other. Instead, Roto talked to a scowling Kurama with a stupid grin on his face and a strange device in his bladeless hand. Harry couldn't see any Demon Energy emitting from Roto, so he wasn't attacking through a chant of some sort, nor was the device channeling any Demon Energy either. What could be going on then? Harry hardly thought Roto was in any position to gloat considering the pathetic fight he had been putting up until just now.

Raising his wand to his ear, Harry cast a sensory enhancement charm on his right ear and slowly increased the volume, gritting his teeth as the crowd's demands to 'kill the demon traitor' grew painful, but if he concentrated, he could just barely make out Roto's words.

"…-king your mother for some time, you see, and he's been very anxious to bite off her head."

Kurama slid out of his defensive position to stand with his feet together and arms at his side.

Roto laughed gleefully at this show of submission. "So you understand." He released the energy he was using to manifest the blade from his hand, and rushed towards Kurama with his bare fists, pounding them into the face of the non-resistant fox demon.

"Damn," Harry cursed. Hermione could say all she liked about how it was Kurama's right to fight to protect his loved ones, but the current situation wasn't exactly allowing such a thing. If Kurama didn't win this, that Roto bastard would kill him, and then kill his mother anyway out of spite.

"Damn," he cursed again, striding angrily closer to the fight, ignoring Kuwabara's surprised questions about his strange behavior. He couldn't interfere, no, Harry conceded. But at the very least he can make sure that regardless of what Kurama decided, his mother would stay safe.

That device from before had a red button on it, reminding Harry of a remote control for a bomb or something. It was probably the signal for whoever Roto had stalking Kurama's mother. He was pretty sure nothing would happen until that signal was given. Roto was quite certain Kurama cared greatly for his human mother and had no way of knowing if Kurama was keeping tabs on her. If the woman died before Kurama was taken care of and Kurama found out, Roto's life would be forfeit. A coward like Roto would understand that, so there was no chance of him allowing such a thing to happen.

"Huh?" The punching stopped when Kuruma shot two tiny dots of his fuchsia Demon Energy at his opponent, startling the demon into stopping his attack. Looking closer, Harry realized that one was reinforced pebble to the face, but the other he wasn't sure of. Interestingly enough, the second burst was shot at the chest, and instead of exploding as the first did in what was likely a light sting against Roto's face, the second spot was tightly linked to Kurama with a thin thread of Demon Energy. In fact, it almost looked like Kurama was feeding energy through that link. But what for? The wizard highly doubted he was trying to feed Roto any energy, so perhaps he threw some sort of time-delayed weapon? Harry hoped Kurama would be careful. There was no telling what might happen to his mother if Roto died.

"Oh honestly," Roto sneered. "Do you think throwing a pebble in my face is the best thing to do in this situation? You've been warned!" The device was grabbed out of his trench coat pocket. "With a push of this button your mother will meet her death in a very unsightly manner! Now fold your arms behind your back and let me hit you as I please."

Kurama complied, to the announcer's shock, who was still unaware of exactly what was going on, standing too far away to hear the conversations.

"Oh yes, that's much better!" Roto praised, "I love the posture of forced submission. Why train hard to be the best when you can hold onto one of these," he said, waving the device in his hand up and down in emphasis. He laughed, walking up to Kurama's face.

"You want to try," he taunted. "I can see it in your pretty eyes. I know what you're thinking. 'What if I can quickly cut off his left arm?' But what if his severed finger still pushes the button?"

Harry grinned. Roto talked too much for his own good. Apparently the signal was necessary to communicate with the stalker. If Roto had some sort of telepathic or spiritual connection instead, it would be a far more effective threat. He'd simply tell Kurama that if he was maimed or killed, his accomplice would do the same to his mother, signal or not, and it would quell any plans for risky attacks. Since this wasn't the case, Kurama still had a chance. If Roto put the device back into his pocket, he'd be as good as dead. But just in case he doesn't… Well, an immobilization charm was invisible, and from only four meters away, Harry was confident he'd hit that stupid red button easily.

**A/N: So yeah, kinda boring, and the next chapter's looking like it'll be worse, so it'll be awhile before I can post it without cringing. Meh.**

**73 reviews 3/5/2013**

**Thanks everyone! Sorry I haven't been too good about review replies, but I read every one, and questions help me plan future chapters :)**


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